Practice Management

Some Lawyers Get Perks for Health and Happiness

The New York Times Business section included an article yesterday called:  For Lawyers, Perks to Fit a Lifestyle.

The article alluded to a variety of perks including money, candied apples, milkshakes, car discounts, valet services, wine, office parties, in-office gourmet meals on silver platters, nap rooms, child care, emergency nanny services, sabbaticals and even an occasional masseuse.

Perhaps this was the most important perk mentioned:

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, a 600-lawyer firm based in New York, offers employees a service akin to a personal issues coach and psychotherapist through a deal with Corporate Counseling Associates of Manhattan. The consulting firm has a battery of staff psychologists and social workers to provide advice on issues including stress, anxiety, depression and divorce.

While many companies have offered employee assistance programs over the years, few have Ph.D. psychologists on staff.

A spokeswoman for Fried, Frank, Paula Zirinsky, said, “We want employees to be successful in their personal as well as their work lives.”

PUNCHLINE:  Some of my law-firm clients have very serious challenges dealing with individuals for whom "psychological intervention" should be mandatory.  In these severe cases, ostensibly productive members of the firm are causing harm to client relationships and firm personnel with long term costs that are hugely underestimated by their firms.  Perhaps offering such perks is a way to make it just a little easier to address these firm-threatening challenges.

Read the entire article...  perhaps your firm can offer many of the perks mentioned - most are not that expensive and I'll bet the return on investment would be healthy indeed (pun intended).

Full post as published by Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices on November 23, 2007 (boomark / email).