New Zealand Law Society - While you're on leave
Keeping in touch days can allow you to enjoy your time on parental leave while remaining involved in office developments and keeping up to date. Keeping in touch days have the advantage of not requiring large time commitments, but keeping you updated on the basics and maintaining contact with your firm and colleagues. Whether you want to take keeping in touch days or how you want them to work is entirely up to you and your employer — there is no prescribed format. For example, you may wish to attend development training sessions, catch up with changes at the office or attend meetings.
Keeping in touch with social activities in your firm can make the transition back to work less daunting and help with keeping you up to date. The extent to which you want to stay involved, or if you would instead prefer to have some time away entirely, is up to you.
When on leave, you might think about the types of flexible working arrangements you may require when you return. Having a clear idea of your requirements will allow you to communicate these arrangements to your employer before your return. It can also help to think about a back-up plan to deal with unanticipated work that you may have to do away from the office, such as working from home.
Before your first day back, get yourself up to date on any office changes or developments that have happened while you were away. Being aware of changes in team structure, clients and processes will make things smoother for your return to the office.
Have a discussion with your employer about changes to your role, and clear up ambiguity about the tasks you will be performing and any changes to your hours. It helps to have this well documented so that when you return to work both you and your employer will have a clear idea about your responsibilities.
If your last practising certificate expired, or if you cancelled your practising certificate, while you were on parental leave, please apply for a new practising certificate at least 20 working days before you plan to return to work. You will not need to provide references with your application form if less than two years have elapsed since you last held a practising certificate.