Work Life Winner: Dickstein Shapiro: Stressing Quality of Life

When Dickstein Shapiro says quality of life is a high priority at the firm, they certainly mean it. The firm's website features a Quality of Life section detailing the firm's family-friendly policies, including:

• Flexible work schedules that don't knock a lawyer off the partnership track (attorneys who work a 50% or greater schedule remain eligible for partnership consideration)
• Parental leave (even dads can take four weeks' leave with full pay)
• Emergency child care (including back up nanny care)
• Employee assistance programs

What's missing? Might we recommend a concierge service to make employees feel pampered and eliminate the stress of completing errands before, during and after work (think dry cleaning, oil changes, film developing, watch repair, eyeglass care, mailing services, buying flowers, and travel reservations). Studies show that about two-thirds of employees will use a concierge service, saving an estimated two hours per week of downtime. At companies that offer it, employees pay discounted prices for the services they need, but not for the concierge service itself, which costs employers about $50 per employee per year (read more about concierge services and other work life balance initiatives being adopted by companies outside the legal industry in our recent post here).

Anyway, kudos to Dickstein Shaprio - our newest Work Life Winner. It goes without saying that quality of life sections are still a rarity on large law firm websites. But times may be changing.