Pooch perk no more
Slaughter and May has done away with one of its more unusual staff perks, the chance to bring dogs into the office.
The scheme was trialled over the summer of 2022 before being made permanent in early 2023, with then managing partner Deborah Finkler citing benefits to morale and stress levels.
It also coincided with the launch of a new ‘working practices code‘ by the Magic Circle law firm, setting out guidelines on things like when staff should check emails, with the aim of reducing “unnecessary incursions” into lawyers’ downtime.
But the dog-friendly policy has quietly come to an end, simply “fading away” during the firm’s London HQ refurbishment, before a decision was taken not to reinstate it, according to the FT. To be fair to Slaughters, dogs and new carpets are not always a happy combination.
Slaughters was not alone in embracing the dogs-in-the-office trend, with the likes of Gowling WLG, Norton Rose Fulbright and Eversheds Sutherland all running similar initiatives as part of their efforts to improve lawyer wellbeing, though these fell short of the formal policy Slaughters introduced.
With the policy now called to heel, at least there will always be the memories… 🐶
Billy
Nino
Ralph
Fillie
Tilly
Louie
This was always a very unusual things for Slaughter and May to offer.
Petition for Legal Cheek to just do a monthly article from submissions of pictures of lawyers’ dogs instead.
If my future firm feels the need to send “guidelines on things like when staff should check emails“, they don’t deserve to see my dog(s) anyway.
Good on them, not everyone loves dogs and I don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be running around an office.