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What are some creative benefits that you wish your firm would offer, or that big law should offer?
(mods - i have a good reason for anon, but I don't want to divulge it in the thread because it would basically out me.)

Don’t know how creative but:

Out of whatever number of vacation days you get, 7 truly unreachable days a year. Maybe this has to end at a certain point due to clients, but first and second years are interchangeable and would be nice to be able to point at your 7 days and say screw it, I’m going on vacation and leaving my phone. Throw in a 60 day notice period so no one gets messed around by associates walking off deals. The rest of your vacation, you would treat as normal.

For fourth years and above, a one time use only 2 month sabbatical. Like maternity/paternity leave but no kid required. Normalize it, too, so people feel they can use.

decent health insurance would be nice. my premiums are absolutely disgusting.

Matching 401. Quality health insurance.

Paw-ternity leave so I can get and train a puppy.

2013 wrote:Paw-ternity leave so I can get and train a puppy.

Freaking genius.

What about in-office massages? That would be nice.

Anonymous User wrote:decent health insurance would be nice. my premiums are absolutely disgusting.

Frustrating to have a choice of either this or a more manageable premium in a HDHP with a huge deductible. I feel like the only prudent decision for me, as a healthy 20-something single associate, is to do this but maintain an HSA in case something happens.

401k contributions - matching or otherwise - would be nice as well. Right now I don't send much here.

Reasonable medical plan premiums - right now associates at my firm pay $1,000 a month for family coverage, which is a lot of money if you're a junior associate with a young family and student loan debt.

Love the idea of a sabbatical for mid-senior level associates - I think a lot of the move to in-house has to do with people being burned out, and if you just gave them a couple of months to recharge, you might see less attrition.

The ability to go on a reduced schedule for a couple of years even for associates who don't have kids.

Matching payments in 401(k)s - and since it's now possible to match on student loan payments, matching on that too.

Help with housing down payments - I'm more likely to stay in the area if I own my own place, but yikes, it's hard to get a down payment when you've got student loan debt and you're trying to save for retirement.

Some sort of support for our outside of the office interest - if someone's interested in taking up the guitar, or languages, or sports, give us some sort of credit for that (again, to help with the burn out).

Flexibility to work from home/work from wherever. Sometimes I'd just like to go to the beach for a couple of weeks and work from an AirBnb, but partners who want face time won't allow it.

2013 wrote:Paw-ternity leave so I can get and train a puppy.

+infinity

One of the firms I'm looking at has a basically enforced 4 week paid break every four years. Definitely a plus.

Paw-ternity would be amazing too. Health insurance and 401k matching would be nice, but that's basically just compensation of a different form, not really creative etc.

Anonymous User wrote:What about in-office massages? That would be nice.

My firm brings in masseuses, as well as mobile manicures/pedicures. However you have to pay for it. It's convenient but not really a benefit I guess.

Anonymous User wrote:
Love the idea of a sabbatical for mid-senior level associates - I think a lot of the move to in-house has to do with people being burned out, and if you just gave them a couple of months to recharge, you might see less attrition.

The ability to go on a reduced schedule for a couple of years even for associates who don't have kids.

This is what I was going to say. A lot of folks see Biglaw as something where you put your real life on hold and then leave for greener pastures. If I could have biglaw and still get to take that big trip when I'm relatively young, or go develop that side passion project for a bit, it'd be great.

Agree with the reduced schedule too. Even if just temporary, it'd be nice to be able to say to a partner "ok, I know I'm starting to burn out, let me go 9-5 for a few months" and get that ok'ed with the firm.

I would check with your firm on the down payment thing. My firm has relationships with a few banks where you only have to put 5% down so that may already be a perk you can take advantage of.