New Parents at O’Melveny Get Free Life-Transitions Coach
O’Melveny & Myers is helping new parents transition back to their legal work by providing a free life- transitions coach.
O’Melveny officially launched its “Momentum One” initiative on Friday after trying it out in a pilot program last year, the Recorder reports. Coaches from AbilTo will work with associates, partners and counsel for at least eight weeks to help them return to work after becoming new parents.
O’Melveny may be the only major U.S. law firm to offer such a program, according to law professor Joan Williams, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California at Hastings law school. She told the Recorder she is aware of a similar program at just one other law firm—McCarthy Tétrault in Canada.
Alicia Hancock was the first lawyer to use the new program. She met with a counselor by video conference before and after her maternity leave, the story says. She came away with tips on organization and the realization that she needed to find backup child care and to schedule time to pump breast milk at work.
“As a first-time parent there’s always a struggle, it especially happens among moms, about whether to come back at all,” Hancock told the Recorder.
