Law Firm Perks You Have—Or Wish You Had?

Question of the Week

Posted Jul 10, 2008, 11:01 am CDT
By Sarah Randag

Because of a back injury that made it uncomfortable for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom litigator Rita Gordon to work at her desk or on the subway, she used the firm’s car service at times other than the appointed late-night hours when she would leave the office to work at home. And Skadden subsequently fired her, saying she abused the car-service perk and overbilled clients tens of thousands of dollars in a five-year period (although Gordon thinks this reason is a pretext and has filed suit).

That got us wondering what other law firm perks readers feel are abused or underappreciated. And what perks are being offered to you—or what perks you offer, as the case may be. Or what perks you dearly wish could be offered by your firm, be it big or small.

Answer in the comments below.

Read last week's question and answers about spelling and grammar pet peeves. We certainly hit a nerve with that question.

Our favorite answers from last week:

Posted by QJC: When writing informally—such as blawg entries or emails or even PostIt notes—there’s no reason not to capitalize the first word in each sentence. Sure, go ahead and shorten how you want to say something, but for the love of Pete, if you’re going to use a period, take the time to hold down that “shift” key once in a while, too. And since when did it become too burdensome to capitalize the lone letter “i”? I learned that it should always, always, always be capitalized, but maybe the rules have changed on me.

Ahh, venting feels good.

Posted by jackcatscal: Just saw a good one—a lawyer advertising herself as having a Jurist Doctorate.

Posted by Ashley: Oh, one more - thru.

Seeing that in an actual appellate brief threw me over the edge. We’re not at Wendy’s!

Posted by Peter Pan: What a load of anally retentive pen-pushers. Words (and punctuation) are all about communication and rarely do any of these nitpicks mentioned above interfere with communication. Poor style, yes, but who gives a damn.

Comments

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Posted by S.A. - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes ago

How about the “perk” of paying relatively similar wages for similarly valuable production?

An internationally known firm, which seems to miraculously find itself, year after year, on the list of “best places to work” hires so-called “contract” attorneys (but claims they aren’t employees because they’re “contractors” even though they work 40-60 hours a week in the law firm’s offices, using the law firm’s computers, equipment, in the manner the law firm requires and under the direct supervision of the law firm at all times) and pays them a piddling $35.00 per hour on the theory that all they’re doing is “document review”. But, then, once the document review is over, it assigns these same “contract” associate level tasks, while continuing to pay them the equivalent of $70,000 a year --- when a similarly situated associate would be paid at least $175,000 a year and even a “staff attorney” would be paid $140,000 a year.

And the “perk” for the privilege of doing associates’ work for 1/2 associates’ pay? A free lunch of starchy, sugary, fat laden food. Boy howdy. How lucky to be a contract attorneeeeeeee!
Posted by A.S. - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes ago

Amen to that, S.A. Or even a small firm that does the same thing (but pays only $22 an hour) and the attorneys, secretaries, and paralegals act like you’re a non-entity, even “cutting you dead” in the hall on the way to the bathroom—never thought I’d use that phrase, only read it in novels, but it is 100% what happens!! Boy am I glad to be gone from there!!
Posted by "The Firm" circa 1993 - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 21 hours, 18 minutes ago

I’m still waiting for Avery Tolar (aka Gene Hackman) to hand me a fat check for my student loans and tell me the Firm doesn’t want those pesky student loans keeping me from devoting my full attention to my clients.
Posted by RP - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 55 minutes ago

I work at a small firm (fewer than 10 lawyers), in a largely rural area. My firm provides me with a new car, with gas, insurance and maintenance provided. Other members of my law school class received much more money to go with large firms, but perks like these make a huge difference. And from the firm’s perspective, it serves to keep me within the fold—if I need to give back my vehicle, it would make me think twice about leaving the firm for a slight pay increase somewhere else.
Posted by boutique firm atty - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 26 minutes ago

Dental insurance. We don’t have it at our small, yet very successful firm. Every dollar that comes in the door goes straight into the owner’s pocket. And, it does not seem many small firms offer this basic necessity. I recently interviewed with a small reputable firm in NYC (larger than were I work now) , and they did not even offer dental overage! A close second in terms of perks I wish I had, is firm coverage of CLE courses.
Posted by plw - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes ago

I would be really happy if my small firm offered a health insurance plan.
Posted by associate - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 3 minutes ago

For small firms, check with your local and state bar associations for health (and vision/dental) insurance pools. Some states allow such industry associations to negotiate group rates for small employers. It’s not the end all be all, but it is comprehensive medical/dental/vision at somewhat reasonable prices.

Personally, I wish we’d make the laws uniform to allow pooling across multiple states and just give everyone a tax credit conditioned on using the money to buy health insurance. Being locked into one employer due to the inability to transfer insurance coverage is counter to our free market system and really keeps people where they don’t need to be and aren’t as productive. But I digress.
Posted by Judith Chirlin - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes ago

Before I went on the bench I was with a law firm whose founding partner was in his eighties. The other partners were concerned about his driving, but didn’t want to insult him. So they convinced him that the firm needed a driver—so that those of us who made frequent court appearances wouldn’t waste a lot of time finding parking places and then walking to the courthouse. So the driver would drive the senior partner between his home and office each day (in the partner’s car), and during the day he would be available to drop me off at and pick me up from the courthouse, deposition sites, etc. Imagine me, as a young lawyer, being delivered to court in a chaffeur driven Rolls-Royce!
Posted by Andy the Lawyer - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago

More money. Much more money. A very great deal more money. Then I’ll buy my own perks, thank you very much.
Posted by Legal NonProfit Perspective - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago

I work at a legal nonprofit so my desired perks may be of a different type than many other’s:
-a computer that won’t crash daily and doesn’t have a monitor that gives me migraines
-more current operating system than Office ‘95
-a copier that actually works
-more than one printer for the entire office
-a fax machine that is newer than 20 years old

and a few others…
-free mental health services for the second-hand trauma of being an ad-hoc therapist for my clients
-law school loan assistance (I get a bit from my law school)
-to never have to hear a greedy attorney joke again when associate Christmas bonuses are larger than my annual salary

A suggestion to those of you at big firms who want to do some sort of pro bono for a nonprofit - seriously consider donating your “gently used” year old office equipment to your local legal aid office. That would be more useful than sending over some first year associates who we have to train to do a basic research memo.
Posted by Professor Ann Maryann - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes ago

A.S., what does “cutting you dead” mean? I never heard it before.
Posted by justanotherone - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes ago

ANY kind of insurance with less than a $60 copay on medications. Vision and Dental would be nice as well but not nearly as important. I spend roughly $1200 a month in COPAYS for medications - Insulin, Insulin pump supplies, and my testing materials which ARE NOT COVERED. ($1.25 a test strip, and must test 4 to 6 times a day.) I can barely buy food and pay rent after paying off my medical bills each month. I’m not the only diabetic out there… Yet, our firm can’t get decent insurance at all.
Posted by Anon - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 17 hours, 14 minutes ago

As a government employee for far too long, I am happy with medical insurance, dental benefits, and free CLE given to us by the state. Can’t complain on that end, it is the trade off- choosing life of mediocrity- mediocre pay, working with incompetency. Would love for:
co-workers to have common sense,
a shower I could use if want to work out at lunch
and the ability to work 4 days a week,
Posted by RJ - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 17 hours, 1 minute ago

Would love to have workout facility and shower.
Posted by A. Reader - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes ago

Commenter #12, I smell a rat. Having been covered by a variety of medical insurance plans, from great to crappy, I can say that the “coverage” you describe does not sound like medical insurance coverage at all. “$1200 a month in copays” for prescribed meds? Either you’re pulling our leg, or the person who negotiates benefits at your work is pulling yours. Maybe your firm doesn’t want to try to obtain good or comprehensive medical insurance coverage because your condition would raise the rate for it? Check with your state bar association about getting under their insurance umbrella. Methinks you’ll do a lot better on your own.
Posted by P.S. I want your parking spot, too - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 15 hours, 26 minutes ago

As a “temp” contract attorney, I don’t get the medical insurance or holidays or paid training that the regular, permanent-hire attorneys get. Of course I’d like all of that—and I think I’ll get it someday, too, when just a few more of you regular hires crumble under the stress, or retire, or die. In the meantime, I will continue to smile cheerfully while working doggedly, and perhaps I’ll even commiserate when you mindlessly bitch to ME (of all people) about your co-pays and the premimums going up. Would I mind if you died sooner, rather than later, you lazy regular hire? No, I would not. I want your crappy medical insurance coverage and your job.
Posted by QJC - 1 month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 14 hours, 52 minutes ago

I have been practing for only a short while, but I have come to realize that the quality and quantity of perks offered by a law firm can be just as important to potential hires as the salary. I have three friends from law school that have all recently moved from small firms to either larger firms or corporate jobs. When I asked them if they’re being paid more (I know, I’m crass), they all said, “Well, yeah, but . . .,” and went on to describe the little things like better health coverage, more holiday time, better retirement plans, etc. It was the perks outside the salary that won them over.

Moral of the story: Perks matter!
Posted by Tornado - 1 month, 2 weeks, 3 days, 17 hours, 23 minutes ago

I wish someone would take my car to get the oil changed and figure out why it dies sometimes. It’s a small thing, I know, but I’ve been needing to get it fixed for months, and it always gets pushed to the bottom of my “to do” list.

A driver for court appearances would be nice, too.
Posted by bm - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes ago

re #5 Dental insurance is a basic necessity?
Posted by to B.M. - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 6 hours, 37 minutes ago

Teeth are a basic necessity. They are necessary for daily life (chewing food). So why do so many people act like dental care is a frill?

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