At Kirkland, ‘Concierge’ Service Aims to Ease Personal Distractions for Lawyers

The blue-chip Am Law one hundred firms this month rolled out a firmwide concierge service, dubbed “Kirkland Concierge,” giving lawyers and senior body of workers entry to a collection of on-call assistants who can help with (nearly) every personal task or errand a busy lawyer may want to think of. The company’s alumni—any legal professional who worked at the company for more than three months— may also have to get entry to a pared-down version of the concierge carrier starting next year.

Could the service unfasten up more significant time for work as an awful lot because it creates more excellent free time? Sure, but the firm says the goal is to make Kirkland & Ellis a more attractive place of business by letting its human beings know what they want to do instead of on pesky non-public obligations.
“It’s not to offer a service to human beings that can work all the time,” stated Chiara Wrocinski, the company’s senior director of criminal recruiting and development. “It’s to offer a carrier that will complement and decorate the lives of our attorneys and give them a possibility to spend their treasured downtime on what they want to do.”

Wrocinski stated the program turned borne, in element, from her frustration with juggling the demands of the final 12 months’ holiday season with her work. Planning events, shopping for gifts, and giving displays for paintings caused a moment of reflection after her husband counseled her to end her job. She didn’t need to cease; she didn’t have time for the vacation grind.

“It became in that second in which I had this consciousness that I’m crushed. However, it’s no longer my paintings that are overwhelming me; I; it’sis private stuff distracts me,” Wrocinski said. “And that is likely how our lawyers are feeling at instances, so why now not solve for that?”

The firm’s research confirmed that only three percent of groups provide concierge offerings. However, 30 percent of employers that make “quality area to paintings” lists provide some perk model.

Such offerings range from call facilities for reservations or online purchases to expert personnel catering to C-suite executives. The firm opted for a mixture of both, supplied in elements through a concierge company called Circles. Kirkland lawyers now have to get admission to a call (and electronic mail) center and have a complete-time concierge body of workers on-site at its places of work. The service is unfastened except for off-hour requests that require a concierge group of workers member. Personal purchases made via the carrier are also paid for using the lawyers and body of workers, no longer the firm.

The firm has additionally educated the concierge workers about what exclusive legal professionals’ jobs entail so they apprehend the needs of financial ruin or an ordeal. The concierge service also received training on how to respond to legal professionals: Brevity is key. They are asked to provide specific answers to questions with bullet factors.

So, a long way, the company says, approximately 20 percent of its eligible employees have used the service in some way. The use is broken up pretty evenly among men and women, Wrocinski said, but associates have made extra requests than partners. Associates usually seek help with family or personal errands, even as partners are likelier to ebook non-public travel or entertainment.

One early service the concierge supplied changed into assisting a professional legal plan to transport out of her house. The legal professional, whom the firm declined to name, had a closing on the sale of her home scheduled in weeks while she was requested to be in Europe for a piece count. That’s when the concierge service took over.