The story on Thanksgiving Day began bravely (ironically?) with five simple words: “Even lawyers need a hug.”
But if they’re a recent law school graduate already making well over $100,000 a year do they also need free milkshakes brought to their desks?
The “happiness committee” at the Washington office of the law firm Perkins Coie has answered that question in the affirmative, according to The New York Times.
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A story by reporter Lynnley Browning headlined “For Lawyers, Perks to Fit a Lifestyle” looks at the little things that seem to mean a lot at big law firms.
“It’s random acts of kindness,” said Lori Anger, client relations manager of the Seattle-based Perkins Coie, which also offers pet insurance and candied apples.
The kindness may be random, but it’s not accidental.
According to other news stories, Perkins Coie, which has 650 lawyers and 15 offices in the United States and China, formed its anonymous happiness committees in the mid-1990s.
The committees have autonomy and can rain down good things at any time. Among the surprise perks given out to the firm’s employees in Seattle on Earth Day once were bags of dirt, plants and fertilizer.
The perks would seem to have worked, as Perkins Coie is consistently among Fortune magazine’s 100 best places to work in the United States.
The firm has a variety of powerhouse clients, including Boeing, Microsoft, Google and Craigslist.
Perkins Coie lawyers have represented many causes and candidates, including John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama.
But the firm has also been involved in many high-profile pro-bono cases. Among them was that of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantanamo detainee who was alleged to have been Osama Bin Laden’s driver.
The Supreme Court ruled last year on Hamdan’s behalf, determining that the military commissions set up to try prisoners at Guantanamo were illegal.
While Perkins Coie would seem to be a leader among law firms in passing out perks, it is certainly not alone.
The Times reports that yoga classes at the Newport Beach office of O’Melveny & Myers can relieve workplace stress on site.
A nap room at the Raleigh office of Kilpatrick Stockton means litigators don’t have to go home to sleep.
David Lat, editor of Abovethelaw.com, an online magazine, has tracked down other perks at other firms, everything from an in-house nail salon to a “lactation room” for nursing mothers.
There are, alas, lots of firms that don’t seem to offer much more of a perk than the job itself, if that.
In a follow-up to the Times story in the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, reporter Jamie Heller noted an economic divide.
While new lawyers at the big law firms are being showed with high salaries and perks, graduates of second-tier law schools say they’re having trouble finding jobs.
Of course, if job hunters really want perks, they should forget the law and go to work for Perkins Coie client Google, a famously perk-friendly employer.
Among its many perks, Google offers free organic food, massages and bike repairs.
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