Partner Ernie Galvan commented on his experience as a new dad taking paternity leave for an article in the Summer 2015 issue of SF Attorney, “Lawyer dads bonding with their newborns.”
According to Ernie, who took two eight-week paternity leaves as an associate, “At a big firm, it may be harder to know how you’re doing or where you stand with partners.” Being at a small firm, “I knew I had enough professional capital around here.” When he returned, “The partners lined up some pretty challenging things right when I walked in. In retrospect, it was good to have some challenging assignments at the beginning. I was able to seamlessly resume practice.”
The article goes on to say that “even though Galvan’s children are now twelve and fourteen, he attributes his close relationship to them partly to his paternity leaves. “I gained a lot of experience with the personalities of my children” by taking time off after they were born, he insists. “They come out with a lot of personality traits. If I hadn’t taken that time off, I wouldn’t know them as well. I now see the whole arc of their development. It’s nice to have that time at the beginning.”