Why one law firm is offering paid vacation packages for its employees

Joshua Klatzkin, Goodwin private equity partner, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the law firm's initiative to offer paid vacation packages to its employees so they can focus on their mental health and personal life.

Video Transcript

- Like many sectors, the legal industry is also finding it challenging to attract and retain staff. Here with insight on how they've been re-evaluating talent recruitment and retirement and retention, rather, is Joshua Klatzkin Goodwin private equity partner, business law department co-chair. Thanks so much for being here, Joshua. So one of the things that you're doing is introducing tiered vacation packages. And I'm wondering, is that something that's unique in your industry? Is there any precedent, is anyone else doing it? And then why vacation packages as opposed to just raising compensation?

JOSH KLATZKIN: Thanks for having me. Yeah, we believe we're the first people in the industry that's done this. And we've raised compensation. We've matched compensation with all of the industry leaders. But for us vacations are different. Vacations are both a cultural touchstone that we want people to take time off to be well, to think about themselves. It was much more meaningful to us to provide some of what the opportunity to take time off and to help them do that than to just throw another $10,000 at them. We think that this really speaks about our values as a firm.

- Joshua, what was sort of the turning point for you as a law firm to sort of pivot in this way? Because I think when we all think about lawyers, we immediately think of long hours. And that's sort of almost like a badge of honor to be a member of the industry and to work those hours. So explain to us why you've made that change within the firm.

JOSH KLATZKIN: Well, we've been lucky that we have great clients that have given us a lot of work and our lawyers have been working harder during the pandemic than they ever have before. And from our perspective, as counterintuitive as this may seem, we want people working less hours. We want people when they come to Goodwin to be coming here for their future. It's not about one year or two years and having people be burnt out.

We want people to develop into them their best selves and to really put themselves in a position to meet their professional aspirations. And doing that involves time off. So to the extent that we can facilitate that time off and we can help them take the time off-- not only by paying for the vacation but by planning it as well if they choose to take advantage of that service-- we think that we can make them have a more well-balanced life that will ultimately lead to a longer and more productive career with us.

- And as you've sort of been going through and reevaluating and taking this holistic approach to the people that you hire, when you do speak to people-- prospective people who you want to bring on board-- what are the things that matter the most to them? Is it time off, is it compensation, is it flexibility? What have you learned?

JOSH KLATZKIN: Really it's the flexibility. And it's the ability to create relationships. There's a lot of great firms that all offer similar compensation and similar opportunities to work with great clients. But really what makes us different is the people and the culture and the ability to form relationships with those people and become a part of the culture. So we very much want to-- and the vacation program is not a one off program. It's part of a much broader Goodwin experience that we are rolling out where we are committing to double down on our relationships with our people.

We recognize we've grown a lot during the pandemic. People have worked very hard during the pandemic. And as we come out of it, we really want to make sure that we're investing as much in our people and our relationships with our people as we do in our relationships with our clients. We think that will lead to a happier, more productive group of attorneys. And they will do better work for our clients and stick around with us longer. We'd love everyone to stay here for as long as they possibly could.

- So Joshua, I know that a place to find entry level talent, of course, is law school. And lots of firms offer internships for law students in between their second and third years. And oftentimes those internships are in person and it gives you an opportunity to actually observe them in the work environment. I'm wondering what the pandemic has done to that sort of dynamic for you. And how have you been able to find new talent?

JOSH KLATZKIN: So we're still recruiting with our summer associate program. We had about 100 summer associates. We have another 110 coming this summer. But the difference is it's been primarily, if not exclusively, remote. So the same way that we had to adapt with our day to day working environment with our full time attorneys, we've had to do it with the summer associates. That's required us to be creative, it's required us to really find opportunities outside of just the workflow to connect with people, to get to know the summers, to let them get to know people at the firm.

And really ensure that this is the right fit for them. We've been lucky that it's been so successful. Our class of 2020 has started, meaning the students who are summer associates remotely during the summer of 2020. And they have integrated and gotten off to as great of a star as the summer associates who spent time with us in person. So we feel like we've got a good mix on that. But, of course, we very much want to be back in person, both of our summer associates and with our full time attorneys. And are hoping that this summer will be an opportunity for that.

- And Joshua, one thing that recruiters say is that applicants are very interested in wage transparency, right? They want to know what the minimum and maximum possible wages for a position. There's a law about to go into effect in New York City to that effect. And I'm wondering, is that something that you support within the rank and file at Goodwin? And more broadly do you think that that's a good idea to help attract and then retain talent as well?

JOSH KLATZKIN: Well, our wages are open and well known. We've got a structure like every other large law firm where, as associates move up the rank in terms of seniority the wages go up accordingly. And the bonus scale goes up as well. So we do let all of our associates know what our bonus scale is every year. We let them know what the top of that scale is for people who outperform and actually can achieve above the scale.

And so we actually think we've got pretty good transparency. And this is an industry where everyone tends to know what everyone else makes.

- All right. We will leave it there. Joshua Klatzkin, Goodwin private equity partner and business law department co-chair. Thanks so much for stopping by and your insight.