(Nashville, TN /July 6, 2015) Baker Donelson has recognized Caldwell G. Collins with the Firm's inaugural Work-Life Warrior Award.
Baker Donelson established the Work-Life Warrior Award to honor an attorney in the Firm who demonstrates an ongoing commitment to excellence in maintaining a healthy work-life balance or has advocated on behalf of work-life balance issues for the benefit of others.
An associate in the Firm's Nashville office, Ms. Collins serves as co-chair of Baker Donelson's Women's Initiative Parental Leave Committee. In that role, she spearheaded the development and implementation of the Firm's expanded parental leave policy. Under the new policy, primary caregivers are eligible to take 16 weeks of paid leave, which can be taken consecutively or used intermittently over a 40-week period. Non-primary caregivers are eligible for three weeks of paid leave, which can be taken consecutively or used over a 20-week period. The policy applies to both male and female full-time and regular part-time attorneys.
Due in large part to this progressive parental leave policy, Baker Donelson was recently named among the 50 Best Places to Work for New Dads in a report compiled by Fatherly, a digital lifestyle guide for men entering parenthood. The Firm's policy has also been highlighted in numerous articles in publications across Baker Donelson's footprint.
"Caldwell was instrumental in Baker Donelson's adoption of an industry-leading parental leave policy that allows new parents to tailor their leaves to their lives and individual practices," said Christy Tosh Crider, chair of Baker Donelson's Women's Initiative and a shareholder in the Firm's Nashville office. "Her efforts ensure that our attorneys, both men and women, will have significantly greater flexibility and an increased opportunity to achieve work-life balance as new parents."
Ms. Collins concentrates her practice on business litigation, health care litigation and products liability litigation. She is a member of DRI and serves as Book Chair of the ABA Section of Health Care Litigation Committee. Ms. Collins has been recognized as a "Rising Star" by Mid-South Super Lawyers, and in 2011 was named Baker Donelson's Nashville Pro Bono Attorney of the Year. She was the recipient of the Firm's Lewis R. Donelson Public Service Award, and in 2014 was named Baker Donelson's Nashville Associate of the Year.