One associate used it to buy dog shoes
US law firm Kirkland & Ellis has reportedly scrapped its ‘Kirkland Concierge’ service, a luxury perk that gave partners and associates access to on-call assistants to run errands on their behalf..
The firm introduced the service in 2018 in partnership with Circles by Sodexo, billing it as a way to free up lawyers’ time from personal tasks that could distract from billable work.
The offering allowed time-strapped lawyers to call on a team of personal assistants for help with tasks ranging from booking holidays and making dinner reservations to buying gifts.
According to Financial News (£), which first reported that the perk had been axed, concierge workers carried out tasks as lavish as securing exclusive dinner reservations and organising complete holiday itineraries — right down to arranging electricians and dry cleaning pick-ups. One associate even used the service to purchase “snow booties” for her dogs.
It’s worth noting that whilst the concierge team carried out the tasks, any items purchased were paid for by the lawyers themselves.
Kirkland & Ellis didn’t respond to our request comment.