We did our annual survey of law firm holiday plans for 2010. This year presents two decision points for law firm HR managers; Independence Day falls on a Sunday and Christmas falls on a Saturday. The traditional standard is to give Friday as a paid day off for holidays that fall on Saturday and Monday as the day off for holidays that fall on Sunday. However, the potential of adding the Friday before Independence day to give a four day weekend is tempting and roughly a third of the firms we talked to are planning to give both Friday and Monday off (a number of firms are waiting to see what local courts do). Since Christmas falls on a Saturday, firms that traditionally give Christmas Eve as a holiday are considering giving the Thursday before Christmas Eve as a day off to provide a four day holiday. Alternatively, a number of firms will be giving the Monday after Christmas off. None of the firms we contacted are giving more than a four day holiday.

 

Holiday	Date	Percentage of Firms
New Years Day	Friday, January 1, 2010	100%
Martin Luther King's Birthday	Monday, January 18, 2010	65%
Lincoln's Birthday	Friday, February 12, 2010	15%
President's Day	Monday, February 15, 2010	33%
Good Friday	Friday, April 2, 2010	26%
Memorial Day	Monday, May 31, 2010	100%
Flag Day	Monday, June 14, 2010	12%
Friday Before Independence Day	Friday, July 2, 2010	36%
Monday After Independence Day	Monday, July 5, 2010	100%
Labor Day	Monday, September 6, 2010	100%
Columbus Day (designated)	Monday, September 11, 2010	12%
Columbus Day (actual)	Tuesday, September 12, 2010	6%
Veterans Day	Thursday, November 11, 2010	12%
Wednesday Before Thanksgiving	Wednesday, November 24, 2010	6%
Thanksgiving	Thursday, November 25, 2010	100%
Friday After Thanksgiving	Friday, November 26, 2010	94%
Day Before Christmas Eve	Thursday, December 23, 2010	16%
Christmas Eve	Friday, December 24, 2010	94%
Monday After Christmas	Monday, December 27, 2010	22%

 

For many firms Muslim holiday schedules are an issue. The major holidays in 2010 include:

·         The Prophet Muhammad's Birthday (not celebrated by all Muslims): Friday, February 26th for Shia Muslims and Wednesday, March 3rd for Sunni Muslims.

·         The start of Ramadan: Thursday, August 12th

·         The end of Ramadan: Friday, September 10th

·         Eid-Ul-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice): Four-day holiday starting Wednesday, November 17th

·         Al-Hijira (Islamic New Year): Tuesday, December 7th

·         Ashura: Thursday, December 16th   

With the number of lawyers laid off from large law firms since the 4th quarter of 2008, the assumption might easily be that the opportunities for part-time lawyers would have shrunk dramatically. To the contrary, however, many firms have become more liberal in approving part-time relationships as an alternative to layoffs. According to a new NALP survey, 98 percent of law firms allow part-time schedules, and, nationally, 5.9 percent of lawyers are working part-time -- both record highs. The survey found:

·         Part-time lawyers are overwhelmingly female. 12.1% of female lawyers are part-time compared to 1.5% of men. Two-thirds of part-time lawyers are women.

·         The size of firms has little bearing on the use of part-time status. Nationally, the averages for firms of all sizes are virtually identical.

·         The popularity of part-time lawyers is highest in the Northwest. The cities where part-time lawyers represent the highest percentage of all lawyers are: Seattle (9.3%), San Francisco (9.3%), Minneapolis (8.9%), Richmond (8.6%) and Portland (7.9%).

·         The cities with the lowest usage of part-time lawyers tend to be in the Southeast: Birmingham (1.3%), Nashville (2.4%), Las Vegas (2.5%), New Orleans (3.0%), and Miami and Tampa (3.5%).

·         Part-time lawyers tend to be Of Counsels and Staff Attorneys (20.7%). The percentage for partners is 3.5% and for associates is 5%.

We are seeing increasingly negative attitudes among lawyers and staff members as we prepare for the new year. For many younger employees, particularly associates, the downsizing of last year, pay cuts and deferral of starting dates for first year associates was a shockingly new experience. However, as the new reality of law firm economics becomes apparent and employees recognize that staffing levels, support services and compensation will not return to "normal" in the near future, many employees (again, especially associates) become very negative toward their firm and the profession as a whole. 

According to psychologists, this negativity manifests itself by employees' lack of willingness to commit themselves for the long term, including volunteering for matters that provide great learning experiences in exchange for some personal sacrifice and a declining interest in professional development and pro bono activities. 

What can law firms do? Experts recommend three actions. 

1.       Provide employees with a timely and accurate (not overly optimistic or pessimistic) information on engagements, workload and other indicators of the firm's position. "A candid assessment on why the firm's response to a client RFP was unsuccessful is as valuable as an insincere cheerleading session," according to one law firm leader.

2.       Focus information on issues that impact employees rather than revenue and profitability statistics. To employees "how the firm is doing" means “will I have a job next month?” not what's happening to partner profits. Tie work to firm goals, "here is what associates have to do to assure the firm does well."

3.       Use slow time productively to have partners provide one-on-one training for associates.

There are 11.6 million single parents living with their children in the U.S., of which 9.8 million are single mothers. Among law firm staff members, the percentage of single parents is estimated to approach 40 percent. An issue that some law firms are becoming concerned about is the potential turnover of employees, particularly top quality secretaries and assistants, as the economy recovers. Of particular concern are employees who have been able to cope with child care during the recession through the availability of unemployed friends and family to act as caregivers during the work day. The fear is that as the economy recovers and these sources of daycare are lost, employees will seek higher wages or more family friendly employers.

Experts recommend that law firms take a few simple and comparatively inexpensive actions to reduce the single parent turnover risk. At the top of the list is emergency day care. Single parents constantly must cope with the unavailability of day care due to illness of the caregiver or the child. There are a number of businesses providing emergency day care but they often will not deal directly with the individual parent; requiring instead a contract with the employer. The contract often only involves guaranteeing payment or a minimum usage which typically cost the employer little or nothing.

A law firm in Atlanta offers a concierge service to all of its lawyers and staff. The service (a couple of former firm assistants who left to be stay-at-home parents) is available to follow up on employee matters that would otherwise divert employee efforts during the work day. The highly valued service costs the firm an average of $500 per week. That same firm also entered into a contract with a dry cleaner to pick up and deliver employee's cleaning to the office. There is no cost to the firm for this service.

The key, according to experts, is not only to offer benefits but also to publicize the firm's concerns and willingness to provide flexibility to single parents. As one retention consultant put it, "The simple act of a firm acknowledging and empathizing with the difficulties of being a single parent goes a long way."

A survey of employers found 2009 to be "the worst holiday party slump in the past 20 years." Sixty-one percent of businesses held a holiday party this year, 20 percent heavily cut back on or eliminated holiday parties due to the recession and 19% eliminated their holiday party completely. Here are the details:

·         Of the holiday parties, 47% were luncheons or afternoon affairs, 53% were held in the evening.

·         73% served alcohol, an increase from 71% in 2008 but down from the record of 90% in 2000.

·         Apparently a significant number (estimated to be 20%) of firms blamed the H1N1 virus rather than economics for the cancellation of downplay a holiday party.