The leave management switchup that supported Singleton Schreiber as they quadrupled their workforce

Singleton Schreiber is a client-centered law firm that protects people from corporate harm. The firm specializes in multi-district litigation, personal injury, civil rights, wildfire litigation, consumer protection law, and environmental law.

Over the last 10 years, the attorneys at Singleton Schreiber have recovered over $3 billion for their clients. In 2025, the firm won over a dozen awards showcasing their individual attorney expertise and excellent service.

In the past four years, Singleton Schreiber has quadrupled their workforce. When the firm needed a better system to manage employee leaves, they reached out to Sparrow.

The challenge: Managing leave in-house with a growing remote workforce

Prior to Sparrow, Singleton Schreiber managed employee leaves internally. “It was all manual,” said Hillary Steinfeldt, Director of Human Resources at Singleton Schreiber.

Several years ago, all the firm’s employees were located in California, but when the team started opening up to remote talent, leaves became more complicated.

Researching state leave programs, leave eligibility requirements, and application processes was complex enough without also having to figure out how state leave laws interacted with the company leave policy.

The work was labor and time-intensive. “We were doing all our other HR functions and trying to figure out leave, too,” Steinfeldt added.

Keeping up with payroll and calculating top-offs was another ongoing obstacle. “With government agencies, there’s a delay in determining what an employee’s weekly benefit will be and how that lines up with our internal benefits,” said Steinfeldt. “So we were constantly adjusting things retroactively.”

She and her team spent a lot of time communicating with employees and managers: gathering information, replying to questions, or sending news.

“Employees and their managers didn’t necessarily have visibility into the leave process,” added Steinfeldt. “All the communication—sharing leave updates or following up with employees—fell to us, which was challenging. Things inevitably fell through the cracks.”

Even though Steinfeldt’s team spent an inordinate amount of time on leave management, they didn’t feel confident they were checking every box along the way.

“We realized it would be impossible to continue managing leaves and still make sure employees had the support they needed,” she explained.

When Singleton Schreiber’s benefits broker recommended Sparrow, Steinfeldt knew it was a great option, especially given the firm’s employee demographic. “We’re a largely young, female firm, so there were a lot of parental leaves happening,” she said.

“We wanted to support our employees and ensure leave was carried out correctly, compliantly, and consistently.” With Sparrow, they could do both.

“Sparrow has been a huge lift to our payroll instead of manually trying to do calculations.”

The solution: Turn leave management over to Sparrow

Sparrow handles the painful parts of employee leave management for Singleton Schreiber, from paperwork and tracking to payroll and compliance. All Steinfeldt’s team has to do is add an employee’s name to the Sparrow dashboard and Sparrow takes care of the rest.

“Leaves are complicated and layered,” said Lynette Todd-Patterson, Benefits Specialist at Singleton Schreiber. “And with employees in different states with different laws, it’s really nice to have Sparrow as a knowledgeable resource.”

Along with staying up to date on state leave programs, Sparrow also fills out and submits state benefits paperwork on behalf of Singleton Schreiber and their employees taking leave.

Another area where Sparrow has saved the firm time—and reduced the risk of error—is payroll. Sparrow sets up automatic payroll calculations and creates custom payroll reports for the team.

We can send a single email to Sparrow and have the peace of mind that our leave cases will be handled correctly.”

“The payroll spreadsheet is super helpful,” said Mariah Chastaine, Senior HR Generalist at Singleton Schreiber. “I love that payroll adjustments get baked in with the updates, so employees’ payments are always correct.”

Chastaine also appreciates the visibility: she can see exactly what employees are getting paid and by whom. “We understand where everything’s going now,” she explained. “Sparrow has been a huge lift to our payroll instead of manually trying to do manual calculations.”

Singleton Schreiber’s benefits and payroll teams aren’t the only ones getting extra support—employees taking leave have more guidance under Sparrow, too.

Sparrow Leave Specialists set up introductory calls with each employee to go over their benefits, break down the filing process, and answer questions. From there, Sparrow submits paperwork on employees’ behalf, then follows up with insurance providers and state agency representatives to get extra information or request a status update.

“Knowing employees are being taken care of and paid properly because of Sparrow, that’s where the real value is.”

Along the way, the benefits team can log onto the Sparrow dashboard to see a timeline of leave cases at the firm or pull a particular employee’s exact leave dates.

“If I forget when somebody’s coming back or I didn’t see the email notification, I have the dashboard to fall back on,” said Todd-Patterson. “And I love the fact that Sparrow reaches out to managers with updates, too. It’s definitely cut down on our administrative work.”

Steinfeldt estimated that Sparrow saves each of her team members multiple hours of work a week.

“We can send a single email to Sparrow and have the peace of mind that it’s going to be handled correctly,” she explained. “Whereas before there was a lot of back and forth, plus many 30-minute meetings to walk employees through their options.”

More important than the time savings, though, is the improved employee leave experience. “Knowing employees are being taken care of and paid properly because of Sparrow—that’s where the real value is,” Chastaine said.

“I love that payroll adjustments get baked in with the updates, so employees’ payments are always correct.”

Communication as a core value

Trusting Sparrow to manage employee leaves has strengthened Singleton Schreiber’s leave compliance, improved their employee leave experience, and given the benefits team more time for recruitment and employee engagement.

But for Steinfeld, one of the best parts about partnering with Sparrow has been the open communication and collaboration.

“I love being able to ask the Sparrow team a question: ‘What’s your take on this? Or how would this typically be handled?’ They’re more than happy to answer our questions even if they’re not specifically tied to a leave,” explained Steinfeldt.

The Sparrow team makes a point to listen and problem-solve, she added. “Everyone at Sparrow is really open to our suggestions and requests, and able to implement our ideas and feedback quickly.”

Ready to overhaul your leave management system? Sparrow saves everyone—from HR professionals to employees taking leave—time and stress. Learn more about our solutions or book a demo today.