Firm puts staff first with ideas to create American dream

Leading US firm Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) is introducing a series of innovative staff policies in London to counter the image of US practices in the City as places where lawyers are churned and burned.The firm is to introduce flexible work arrangements, a womensdiscussion forum, and a referralservice to put staff in touch with a range of services including pet care and dry cleaning.The firm will also introduce an employee assistance programme, a confidential therapy scheme paid for by MoFo to help employees resolve family and relationship issues,parenting concerns, alcohol or drug abuse and stress.Kristian Wiggert, managing partner at MoFos London office, said: I think theres still a tendency, particularly within the UK legal sector, tocategorise US law firms as burn and churn operations: that has never been the case at MoFo...

its simply a case of making it a priority to listen to colleagues concerns.Although the flexible working arrangements which aim to assist lawyers with babies remaininformal, MoFos main offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles arecurrently piloting a scheme to put flexiwork on a formal footing.Jeremy Fleming