Law Firms' Amenities Forum

[Anonymous User]

5 Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP New York, NY
Location: Midtown, by Grand Central
Cafeteria: Nice
Gym:
Insurance Info:
401k match:
Cab home:
Free meals:
Other:

Cafeteria - nice. Heavily subsidized. Very good food for breakfast and lunch. Most people order seamless for dinner.
Gym - Membership subsidized at NYSC and Equinox, both of which have locations within 3 minutes of the office.
Insurance - very good.
401k match - Ha. No.
Cab home - black cars billed to client after 8:30. They'll go to Westchester. Can also take a cab and get reimbursed. If you come into the office on the weekend, cab reimbursed both directions.
Free meals - $25 budget if you've billed or reasonably expect to bill 10 hours and reasonably expect to stay past 8:30. I've gotten a meal after billing less than 10 (e.g. slow day but then got hit with something at 4:00) plenty of times and never had a problem. If you bill more than 4 hours on a weekend, $25 for that. I think at some point on the weekend you can get a second meal, but I've never had to test that.
Other: Free espresso on one floor, free coffee on every floor.

Do you mean $35 for dinner? $25 seems crazy low to me for dinner in NYC. I just assumed everybody had $35

Skadden is $45 for dinner. $25 does seem a little low, but is definitely doable. Just no fancy sushi etc.

[5ky]

Honestly 90% of my meals are over 25 dollars. Just getting a 20 buck entree and a san pelligrino puts you in that range with delivery + tip

[Anonymous User]

Do you mean $35 for dinner? $25 seems crazy low to me for dinner in NYC. I just assumed everybody had $35

I'm the DPW poster. No typo.

You're allowed to bill a "reasonable amount" and then they say $25 is per se reasonable. So maybe you could get more, but I don't think anyone really does. You can get a good meal for that amount - you're not ordering takeout from Jean-Georges but it's more than enough to keep me going.

[Anonymous User]

Do you mean $35 for dinner? $25 seems crazy low to me for dinner in NYC. I just assumed everybody had $35

lol. wow. i had a nice dinner off a food cart in the city just last night for $6. (grilled chicken with yellow rice and veggies). except maybe for 1%ers, no one in NYC or anywhere in america thinks $25 is "crazy low" for a regular weeknight meal.

[5ky]

Do you mean $35 for dinner? $25 seems crazy low to me for dinner in NYC. I just assumed everybody had $35

lol. wow. i had a nice dinner off a food cart in the city just last night for $6. (grilled chicken with yellow rice and veggies). except maybe for 1%ers, no one in NYC or anywhere in america thinks $25 is "crazy low" for a regular weeknight meal.

yeah, yeah, first world problems, i know. but i mean listen, when you order seamless 25+ times a month, there's only so many times you can order thai or chinese or a sandwich. i started to want real food, which is not particularly cheap off of seamless.

[dixiecupdrinking]

Do you mean $35 for dinner? $25 seems crazy low to me for dinner in NYC. I just assumed everybody had $35

lol. wow. i had a nice dinner off a food cart in the city just last night for $6. (grilled chicken with yellow rice and veggies). except maybe for 1%ers, no one in NYC or anywhere in america thinks $25 is "crazy low" for a regular weeknight meal.

yeah, yeah, first world problems, i know. but i mean listen, when you order seamless 25+ times a month, there's only so many times you can order thai or chinese or a sandwich. i started to want real food, which is not particularly cheap off of seamless.

Especially in midtown.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

..

[sundontshine]

This might, and probably is an ignorant question, but why don't firms offer 401K, or do they?

They know they don't have to because other firms don't, even though most of the rest of corporate America does a match. I've always been astounded that law firms don't do a basic benefit that most companies provide.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

...

[Anonymous User]

I think another good category to add is which private bank your firm has relationship with. Most big firms have relationships with private banking clients, and they waive the 25 million minimum for their associates. This is a pretty big perk!

Some firms give you a few choices. Some have relationships with only one.

Joke?

So, maybe it's that I have a financial background and don't see the value in this. But what on earth does an associate making 160k or 200k need a private bank for? You pay off as much of your loans as you can, pay the absurd NYC rent so you can have a shortish commute, max out your 401k contribution and dump what's left over into some combination of checking account and a couple index funds. What do you need a private bank for?

A good number of new associates at big firms have no loans to repay

Zero fee everything, including related to international travel.

Great customer service (jp morgan overnighted me new checks).

It isn't hugely beneficial, but def nice

[Anonymous User]

6 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP New York, NY
Location: Midtown, by Grand Central
Cafeteria:
Gym:
Insurance Info:
401k match:
Cab home:
Free meals:
Other:

Cafeteria: Very nice, cheap. $5-7 for a full lunch is typical. Open for breakfast and dinner as well, but less used then.
Gym: No gym, but will cover up to $50 of the cost of a gym membership. Equinox across the street is popular.
Insurance: Two HMO plans (Aetna and someone else) and UnitedHealth choice plan available
401(k) match: Of course not.
Cab Home: Paid for anywhere after 8:30 p.m. All cab fees paid on weekends to/from the office.
Free Meals: $30 guideline for Seamless dinner if you expect to work until 8 p.m.; no hours guideline. $30 is not a hard limit, and you'll be reimbursed at least up to $40. Any meals at the office on weekends paid.

Updated for change (improvement) in cab policy in 2015.

[Anonymous User]

can anyone do this for Chi firms. Kirkland, mayer brown, Jenner, Sidley?

[Desert Fox]

[smaug]

And now we know why DF is massive.

[Desert Fox]

[cookiejar1]

I think another good category to add is which private bank your firm has relationship with. Most big firms have relationships with private banking clients, and they waive the 25 million minimum for their associates. This is a pretty big perk!

Some firms give you a few choices. Some have relationships with only one.

Joke?

So, maybe it's that I have a financial background and don't see the value in this. But what on earth does an associate making 160k or 200k need a private bank for? You pay off as much of your loans as you can, pay the absurd NYC rent so you can have a shortish commute, max out your 401k contribution and dump what's left over into some combination of checking account and a couple index funds. What do you need a private bank for?

It's all about whipping out that JP Morgan Private Client debit card tho

[Anonymous User]

can anyone do this for Chi firms. Kirkland, mayer brown, Jenner, Sidley?

Bump for Jenner and Sidley if possible

[Anonymous User]

Used to have $25 Seamless limit at my old firm. New firm only has $20 limit

[Anonymous User]

Somebody post about Texas firms, ffs.

[Anonymous User]

Curious about Bay Area DPW, Skadden, STB, W/C/F/G

[Mr. Fancy]

Fenwick gives paid airfare for two and a condo for a week in Hawaii

[Anonymous User]

Curious about Weil NYC.

[Anonymous User]

Thought I'd jump in for Texas.

Norton Rose Fulbright Houston.
Location: Floors 36-51 of Fulbright Tower, downtown.
Cafeteria: None, but Fulbright is the only firm directly connected to the Houston Center (huge food court) and the Four Seasons. Also connected to the underground tunnel system, so tons of restaurants there too.
Gym: Connected to one.
Insurance: Pretty decent.
401k: Ha, but summers are allowed to contribute to 401k.
Cabs: Garage parking is heavily subsidized. All the summers get access to the firm's Uber account, so I know that there's one out there. Never have used it though.
Other: Just spent a boatload of money doing a top-to-bottom renovation. Every floor has its own kitchen with coffee and free soda machines. A lot of the associates get partner-sized 12x16' offices (building was originally built for an oil company which required enormous offices for some reason).

[Anonymous User]

20. White & Case: New York, NY

Location:
Midtown - currently occupying the top floors of 1155 6th Avenue; moving to the top 9 floors of the 1221 6th Ave (the McGraw-Hill Building) in February 2017

Cafeteria:
The current one is decent

Gym:
The current building has a nice White-&-Case-only gym that provides clothing to work out in, has showers, etc.; in the new office, the gym will be relocated to the top floor of the building, and it will continue to be firm-only and free

Insurance Info:
Decent, and there is a free medical center on site where you can be seen, receive prescriptions, etc. if you aren't feeling well

401k match: No

Cab home:
Free after 9:00pm

Free dinners:
Up to $35 after 7:00pm

Free lunches:
During the summers, up to $55 per person if both summer associates and associates are present (no limit with partners present) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; on Wednesdays, summer associate + associate pairings can spend up to $15 per person and then have the rest of the money that they normally receive on other days donated to a charity of their choice

Other:
There is a Chipotle on the first floor of the new office (it is the same building as A&O's New York office)

[Desert Fox]