Seamless Budgets Forum

[Anonymous User]

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.

Anecdotal I know, but I’m at a firm with a 20 dollar limit, and I have had an above market bonus the last four years in a row. Last year I only billed an hour above the target.

On the flip side to this, having a $50 limit also sends a message that the firm wants you to miss dinner. Just as much a “canary in the coal mine” as it were. Which is not to say I’m arguing for lower budgets (I’m not, I’d love more), just that you can always fit an individual fact in isolation to your chosen narrative.

[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.

I'm a tax associate and this is significantly more complicated than you think. It basically boils down to the accounting philosophy of the firm as to whether they decide it is taxable income or not for the associate. I'm pretty sure we all thought it was taxed as juniors but the accounting people told us it wasn't because it was a de minimis fringe benefit or something.

Also applies to car rides home.