Fortune Recognizes Orrick’s Holistic Approach to Supporting Parents

November.27.2019

Orrick is #18 on Fortune’s 2019 Best Workplaces for Parents, in recognition of our family-friendly policies and industry-leading support for parents. The Fortune 50 Best Workplaces for Parents list is based on feedback from more than 4.6 million U.S. employees at Great Place to Work-certified companies. We’re one of only two law firms on this year’s list.

Orrick continues to lead the market with an expanded parental leave policy announced this fall: Orrick now offers 16 weeks of paid leave to all team members – lawyers and staff – regardless of whether they are primary or non-primary caregivers. Birth parents continue to be eligible for another six to eight weeks of disability benefits. And we have expanded when new parents can take leave to any time within the first 12 months after the child’s birth.

“Thinking about the increasingly important roles that staff play on our teams, we didn’t think it made sense to continue to have different parental leave policies for lawyers and staff,” said Orrick’s Chief Talent Officer Siobhan Handley. “We made these changes to ensure that all team members are able to thrive professionally while raising a family.”

We also support parents returning to work through our on-ramping program for lawyers, which includes reduced and more predictable hours, firmwide Agile Working options, and resources such as parent-to-parent coaching and a Parents’ Forum.

Earlier this year, and for the fourth year in a row, Fortune selected Orrick #15 among the 100 Best Companies to Work For – Orrick is the highest-ranked law firm of only four firms on the 2019 list. We’re #4 on PEOPLE magazine’s 2019 Companies That Care list and on Fortune’s Best Workplaces for Women and Millennials lists.

Siobhan Handley Chief Talent Officer

New York

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Siobhan Handley Chief Talent Officer

New York

In collaboration with the firm’s leadership team, she focuses on designing and implementing programs to recruit, inspire and advance the best legal and staff talent.

Siobhan previously served as Orrick’s Managing Director for Resources. In that role, she spearheaded the development of the firm’s innovative talent model—the first of its kind in a major law firm—which replaces the traditional associate lockstep advancement system with merit-based advancement. As chair of the firm’s Talent Committee, she oversees Orrick’s lawyer training and performance feedback program – which is one of the most rigorous in the market. She also has led the creation of a range of new lawyer and professional staff roles.

Siobhan brings to this role extensive experience on the front line of client service, having been a partner in the firm’s product liability litigation and mass tort defense group. For more than a decade, she was a member of the Orrick team that acted as National Counsel to Union Carbide Corporation in connection with asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits and served as lead trial counsel in cases across the country. Siobhan was one of the key trial counsel in the highly-publicized landmark trial in Texas State Court, Brazoria County, where Kelly-Moore Paint Company sued Union Carbide for $1.4 billion in compensatory damages and $4.2 billion in punitive damages that resulted in a complete defense verdict. In addition, she served as trial counsel for significant product liability cases for other clients including Wyeth and Flexible Products.