Baker Women, Baker Donelson's women's initiative, is committed to creating an environment where women attorneys and advisors thrive, increasing the Firm's ability to provide unparalleled client service.
Baker Women's mission is to:
- Improve the recruitment and retention of all attorneys and address issues that disproportionally affect women.
- Equip and empower all attorneys for leadership positions at the Firm and the communities we serve.
- Heed the call of our clients to provide diversified attorney teams by equipping our attorneys to be trusted advisors.
- Improve career development for all attorneys, thereby enhancing the economic viability of the Firm.
The Firm is focused on recruiting and promoting women attorneys, maintaining our commitment to developing new opportunities for our women attorneys and providing innovative approaches to supporting women in the Firm.
Leadership
Women attorneys serve as leaders across the Firm and in the communities we serve. Currently, women serve as President and COO, on the Board of Directors, as office managing shareholders, department heads, and as practice group and committee chairs.
The commitment of Baker Donelson's women attorneys reaches well beyond the Firm. Many serve in positions of leadership in their communities and industries, including the past president of the American Bar Association (ABA). Baker Donelson believes that encouraging and supporting women leaders ensures a better Firm to serve our clients and our communities.
Flexibility and Work-Life Balance
Gender-Neutral Parental Leave
Our gender-neutral parental leave policy enables work-life balance by providing all attorneys with 17 weeks of paid leave in the 40 weeks surrounding the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child under the age of six, and four weeks in the 20 weeks surrounding adoption or foster care of a child over the age of six. Attorneys are encouraged to use their allotted leave hours intermittently surrounding a birth or adoption, allowing them to create a unique ramp-down and/or ramp-up transition plan.
More than 40 Parental Leave Advisors are available across the Firm to support those transitioning to and from leave.
Family Planning and Support Leave Policy
As a way to support Baker Donelson employees and their families, the Firm's gender-neutral Family Planning and Support Leave Policy provides two weeks of paid leave, which may be taken during a single two-week period or intermittently over the course of a year, for a variety of reasons, including infertility services, fostering efforts, adoption efforts, surrogacy efforts, and pregnancy loss.
Resources for Working Parents
Back-up Child Care Reimbursement Program
We understand that sometimes primary child care falls through due to unexpected circumstances, and when this happens, our attorneys and advisors are faced with the expense of temporary back-up child care. The Firm's backup child care reimbursement program is designed to help offset the cost of back-up child care when primary child care is not available.
Breastmilk Shipment Reimbursement Program
To continue to support our Baker Donelson working moms, the Firm's breastmilk shipment reimbursement program is available to help offset the cost of shipping breastmilk during work-related travel.
Private Breastmilk Storage Program
To help further support our nursing mothers transitioning back to work, the Firm provides individual refrigerators so mothers can store their breastmilk privately.
WIN Partnership
Through the Firm's partnership with WINFertility, our employees can receive support and financial assistance on services related to infertility, family-planning, menopause and andropause.
SNOO Discount Rental Program
Because we understand that quality sleep is important for our new parents to be productive when transition back to work, the Firm will help cover the monthly rental cost of a SNOO, Happiest Baby's Smart Bassinet that is scientifically-proven to give new parents more sleep at night.
Mentoring
We provide guidance, support, and networking opportunities at all levels of career development. At each stage of our attorneys’ professional development, we address the challenges and opportunities that are unique to attorneys.
Our industry-leading Baker Women Mentoring Program thrives on small group mentoring, called mentoring pods. Each pod consists of five to seven attorneys who are grouped based on their personal and professional needs, allowing them to develop lasting relationships and have meaningful conversations every other month.
Baker Women Signature Programming and Events
Baker Women hosts a number of signature programming and events throughout the year that benefit all attorneys, including a special Women’s History Month program, client development events, mental health programs, advancement programs, and leadership development programming.