Gibson Dunn
Los Angeles, CA
Gibson Dunn is an elite 136-year-old law firm with 2,200+ lawyers across 23 global offices, known for sophisticated M&A, litigation, and regulatory work. As an employer, it offers industry-leading compensation, exceptional professional development (New Lawyer Academy, departmental bootcamps, in-house career coaches), and generous benefits including $60K fertility coverage and flex-time arrangements. The firm is genuinely inclusive with 16 affinity groups and targeted programs like Gibson Dunn Families coaching for parents. But this is big law: expect demanding night-and-weekend hours that put work-life balance well below compensation as the main trade-off.
see the full file on Gibson Dunndocumented benefits (17)
| Life insurance | yes |
|---|---|
| Birthing-parent leave | offered |
| PTO | offered |
| Adoption & surrogacy support | offered |
| Tuition reimbursement | offered |
| Flexible hours | yes |
| Internal course catalog | yes |
| Learning budget | offered |
| Learning platform | yes |
| FSA | yes |
| Fertility support | yes |
| Fertility allowance | $60,000 |
| Gender pay gap, median | -4.4% |
| Gender pay gap, mean | 3% |
| Bonus gap, median | 15.1% |
| Women in the top pay quartile | 54.8% |
| Women in the workforce | 57.8% |
notable perks
- Free Market System: associates seek out the matters that interest them instead of being assigned work
- New Lawyer Academy, a three-day in-person retreat for new associates and laterals from around the world
- In-house career coaches who all previously practiced law at elite firms, most of them at Gibson Dunn itself
- Departmental bootcamps that give new associates substantive training within months of joining
- First-year Pods: small cross-office groups that meet monthly with a professional-development coach
- Gibson Dunn Families program: individual coaching for expecting and new parents on off-ramping and on-ramping
- Transition-period policy lets caregivers back from extended leave work a reduced schedule while receiving full pay
- 18 firmwide affinity groups, including MENA, Sabbath-Observant, First-Generation Professionals, and Veterans
- Every new staff hire is paired with a 'Gibson Guide' buddy for onboarding
the legal floor where they are
Set by law, not by Gibson Dunn. It applies to every employer in CA.
| IVF cycles the state covers | California requires IVF from 1 January 2026, and only from large employers. SB 729 (2024) rewrote Health and Safety Code § 1374.55 so that a large group health care service plan contract 'issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, shall provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and fertility services, including a maximum of three completed oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers', following ASRM guidelines and using single embryo transfer where medically appropriate. Large group means 100 or more employees. Small group plans need only be OFFERED the coverage rather than provide it, religious employers are excluded, Medi-Cal managed care is exempt, and CalPERS plans are delayed to 1 July 2027. The original 1 July 2025 date was pushed back a budget trailer bill, AB 116 (2025). THE LIMIT THAT DECIDES WHETHER THIS REACHES YOU: a state insurance mandate binds only fully insured plans. A self-funded employer plan is governed federally under ERISA and is preempted, and KFF's 2025 employer survey puts 67% of covered workers — 80% at firms of 200 or more — in a self-funded plan. At most large California employers this law therefore does not apply, and the fertility benefit on the page is the company's own choice. (Senate Bill 729 (2024), which repealed and added Section 1374.55 of the Health and Safety Code and amended Section 10119.6 of the Insurance Code; the operative date was moved from 1 July 2025 to 1 January 2026 by Assembly Bill 116 (2025).) |
|---|---|
| Adoption leave the law gives | 12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period on the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. There is no federal paid adoption leave. (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(B) and 2612(c); eligibility at 29 U.S.C. 2611(2) and (4). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code.) |
| Pay when you are ill | No federal law requires any paid sick leave. The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, and the FMLA gives 12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period for a serious health condition, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. Any paid sick time comes from a state or city law, or from the employer's own choice. (Fair Labor Standards Act, per the Department of Labor's statement on payment for time not worked; Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(D) and 2612(c). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code on govinfo.gov.) |
Every claim above is sourced and dated. See sources on the full page.
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