Seamless Budgets Forum

[Anonymous User]

Kirkland is $40.

More importantly, someone tell me what is the highest reimbursement amount someone has submitted at Latham and been approved for under the no limit policy.

Kirkland also has weird, office-specific strings to the money (but they are rarely enforced). You are technically supposed to bill 9+ hours to be eligible in some offices including NY/Chi, and 9.5+ hours in DC/Houston. Same is true of getting reimbursed for an Uber/cab home.

If I am in the office past 7 PM I am ordering dinner and probably getting an Uber, and I have never once had it rejected - I also do not make sure that I billed enough hours. So like I said I think this is rarely enforced and the firm will process the $40 reimbursement for dinners ordered around dinner time pretty much pro forma.

[Anonymous User]

At Ropes there's no limit, and I usually spend about $50. I also get an above market bonus. But the DPW bros get prestige, and you can't quantify that.

What's the timing for Food/Uber at Ropes, is it 8:00pm? Also has the 9hr/$45 food policy changed anything for you?

And could you shed some light on the incremental bonus comp %'s above 1900? Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

WSGR is $25, but only if you're in the office after 8 pm. lol

[Anonymous User]

Any intel on Gibson Dunn?

[Anonymous User]

[/quote]

This is probably better overall, but it also potentially screws over the associate who has nothing to do until 4/5pm and then all of a sudden gets an assignment that keeps them in the office until 10/11. Would that person get dinner at Dechert?

Agreed that the Deb policy seems ridiculous. For rising 2Ls on the margins of what firm to choose, seemingly little things like this actually have a real impact on your firm experience.
[/quote]


Good Point - I'm in lit so I basically never have a schedule like that but would be pretty pissed in the scenario you described.

That being said, with the state of the lateral market for corporate (where I feel like that schedule is more realistic? just guessing) I think you could basically bill for dinner whenever you want/for as much as you want at any firm right now.

Are you really going to bitch to an associate because they spent $60 on dinner when they only billed 6 hours when chances are they're billing a ton most days, you desperately need bodies, and the associate can just bounce with a huge lateral bonus anyway?

[Anonymous User]

SRZ is $35 but moved over to giving you a credit applied to the seamless website so now you have to pay even a cent over $35 yourself. I have ordered as early as 530pm so long as I'm staying past around 730pm without issue. No billable requirement though I second guess myself if I will bill less than 5 hours that day.

They also have staff which bring the food from downstairs to your desk which is actually a huge perk I didn't know I wanted.

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin offers $20 (but for the subtotal, so any taxes, tip, delivery fees, etc. on top of that are covered) past 7:30 pm. You originally needed to be in the office for this policy but they recently changed it so you can be anywhere to accommodate remote folks and as long as you're billing 8+ hours in a given day, you can order and expense something. So for folks in essentially all corporate practices, it's essentially free dinner every night.

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin offers $20 (but for the subtotal, so any taxes, tip, delivery fees, etc. on top of that are covered) past 7:30 pm. You originally needed to be in the office for this policy but they recently changed it so you can be anywhere to accommodate remote folks and as long as you're billing 8+ hours in a given day, you can order and expense something. So for folks in essentially all corporate practices, it's essentially free dinner every night.

I can't believe they haven't bumped this up for us yet. You can basically seamless a number 1 meal from McDonalds...

[eastcoast_iub]

Goodwin offers $20 (but for the subtotal, so any taxes, tip, delivery fees, etc. on top of that are covered) past 7:30 pm. You originally needed to be in the office for this policy but they recently changed it so you can be anywhere to accommodate remote folks and as long as you're billing 8+ hours in a given day, you can order and expense something. So for folks in essentially all corporate practices, it's essentially free dinner every night.

Just a reminder that it’s not free as we have to pay taxes on all of it. It took me a while to realize that lol.

[Anonymous User]

Kirkland is $40.

More importantly, someone tell me what is the highest reimbursement amount someone has submitted at Latham and been approved for under the no limit policy.

I submitted $60 and had no issue, but I did it because I was pissed at the client. I generally keep it to $35-40.

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin offers $20 (but for the subtotal, so any taxes, tip, delivery fees, etc. on top of that are covered) past 7:30 pm. You originally needed to be in the office for this policy but they recently changed it so you can be anywhere to accommodate remote folks and as long as you're billing 8+ hours in a given day, you can order and expense something. So for folks in essentially all corporate practices, it's essentially free dinner every night.

Just a reminder that it’s not free as we have to pay taxes on all of it. It took me a while to realize that lol.

Wouldn’t this be a reimbursed business expense which gets excluded from tax returns?

[Anonymous User]

At Ropes there's no limit, and I usually spend about $50. I also get an above market bonus. But the DPW bros get prestige, and you can't quantify that.

What's the timing for Food/Uber at Ropes, is it 8:00pm? Also has the 9hr/$45 food policy changed anything for you?

And could you shed some light on the incremental bonus comp %'s above 1900? Thanks!

my meals get approved and I order as early as 630 in the office sometimes. for the 45$ at home yes because I'll order my food at 5 or 6 pm as long as I know I will hit 9 hrs by end of day. And since I'm at home I can order 2 or 3 meals worth of food, eat 1 meal, and put the rest in the fridge.

As for bonuses it's lockstep your first 2 years and then we mostly pay above market. I don't think there's a rigid formula and I think reviews from your supervisors matter.

[Anonymous User]

Dechert

Seamless $40 (website credit) - can order from 4pm to 11:59pm. Must have worked 9.5hrs (not necessarily bill 9.5). 4hr threshold for weekends. No need to be in the office. You can order seamless from home by hitting the thresholds above, which I think is nice (this is a recent change).

[Anonymous User]

At Ropes there's no limit, and I usually spend about $50. I also get an above market bonus. But the DPW bros get prestige, and you can't quantify that.

What's the timing for Food/Uber at Ropes, is it 8:00pm? Also has the 9hr/$45 food policy changed anything for you?

And could you shed some light on the incremental bonus comp %'s above 1900? Thanks!

my meals get approved and I order as early as 630 in the office sometimes. for the 45$ at home yes because I'll order my food at 5 or 6 pm as long as I know I will hit 9 hrs by end of day. And since I'm at home I can order 2 or 3 meals worth of food, eat 1 meal, and put the rest in the fridge.

As for bonuses it's lockstep your first 2 years and then we mostly pay above market. I don't think there's a rigid formula and I think reviews from your supervisors matter.

That's sweet and thanks for the info! What's the food and uber policy when you are in the office? Is it something like any time you stay past 7:00 or 8:00pm?

[Anonymous User]

Any intel on Gibson Dunn?

Bump! Also gonna be at Gibson !

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin offers $20 (but for the subtotal, so any taxes, tip, delivery fees, etc. on top of that are covered) past 7:30 pm. You originally needed to be in the office for this policy but they recently changed it so you can be anywhere to accommodate remote folks and as long as you're billing 8+ hours in a given day, you can order and expense something. So for folks in essentially all corporate practices, it's essentially free dinner every night.

I can't believe they haven't bumped this up for us yet. You can basically seamless a number 1 meal from McDonalds...

I actually don't ever use the platform they provide via Seamless. Just DoorDash/UberEats or order anything anywhere really and expense it. Agree that the limit, even with the caveat above on the subtotal, is pretty low and should be upped.

[Anonymous User]

I’m ranking every firm on Vault by the Seamless budget. $20 at Goodwin is simply outrageous and deserve to fall.

[Anonymous User]

I’m ranking every firm on Vault by the Seamless budget. $20 at Goodwin is simply outrageous and deserve to fall.

Goodwin associate here - I was unaware we even had a budget. I've been assuming the budget was $30 for months and have not once had an issue getting reimbursed.

[Anonymous User]

Does any of this depend on which market your office is in?

[Anonymous User]

I'm at Kirkland I find our $40 budget kinda oppressive. Taxes, delivery, tipping driver = takes a huge chunk. Dunno how other firms manage; having even lower budgets is crazy.

Note that Kirkland's budget pre-Great Recession was $50 (way more in today's dollars). Need to bring back those times.

[Anonymous User]

I’m ranking every firm on Vault by the Seamless budget. $20 at Goodwin is simply outrageous and deserve to fall.

Goodwin associate here - I was unaware we even had a budget. I've been assuming the budget was $30 for months and have not once had an issue getting reimbursed.

Original Goodwin anon -- I've never had an issue getting reimbursed for more either and don't think it's an issue as long as it's reasonable. $20 is just the official policy.

(Also to be clear, the official budget is $20 without counting delivery fees, taxes and tips, all of which are covered so long as the subtotal is <=$20, which seems to be causing confusion above)

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Agreed that the Deb policy seems ridiculous. For rising 2Ls on the margins of what firm to choose, seemingly little things like this actually have a real impact on your firm experience.

these seems down there with "i liked the 4 people out of 500 that i met" in terms of reasons to choose a firm. all other things equal, sure choose based on this. but all other things are not going to be equal

Canary in the coal mine. What do you think the firm who tries to fuck you out of an appetizer is gonna do when it comes to your $100k bonus?

It's a tremendously stupid policy from firms. It's extremely expensive to replace your departures, people leave because they're angry, being hungry is one of the quickest ways someone gets angry, and, outside of obvious cases of abuse, it really costs them next to nothing for people to just order a regular goddamn dinner at dinnertime.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone who pays taxes on free seamless dinners is being dumb.

[Anonymous User]

Winston NY is $60 when working two hours past business hours (730pm). I order before then and certainly stay in office to get this. Billable, pro Bono, nonvolatile matters all eligible and never any issue. Once I saw my meal crossed out on the bill, so oftentimes the billing partner can scratch it and the form will eat it. Outside of NY I think form gives $40 or $50 - not sure.

[RedNewJersey]

Just a reminder that it’s not free as we have to pay taxes on all of it. It took me a while to realize that lol.

Wouldn’t this be a reimbursed business expense which gets excluded from tax returns?

No (unless there is some IRS COVID-related exception I'm unaware of). 26 U.S.C. § 119(a) is what usually allows deducting employer-paid meals, but subsection (1) says it must be on-premises.