What's The Right Amount For Associates To Gift Support Staff This Year?
COVID is even messing up gifting.
Gift giving is one of those inexorable stressors of the holiday season. Whether you’re trying to figure out what to get your mom this year, how much to tip your door person, or what to give your child care worker. And, of course, COVID has only complicated the equation: you can’t travel to see mom so finding that extra special gift is even more important, expressing how appreciative you are that your door person is essential and will sign for the multitude of Amazon packages you get is paramount, and having someone helping your kid with math homework while you are busy billing has made your life possible.
It’s generally a tradition for lawyers at Biglaw to give gifts — usually cash — to the support staff that make their job smoother. And how much you should give to that essential paralegal is not always clear, even in the best of times. Our network of tipsters has reported a wide spectrum of support staff gifts, from a measly $20 on the cheap end to an impressive $1,000 on the generous side. But when we polled Above the Law readers last year, assuming you’re a midlevel associate (and that amounts would scale up slightly as a senior or down as someone pretty junior), $300+ was the most popular answer.
But of course, things have changed in the pandemic. It’s no longer easy to just slip your admin a card loaded with cash in the hallway, so what are folks going to do? Venmo? Checks in the mail?
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And while, by and large, special COVID appreciation bonuses will improve associates’ bank accounts at the top Biglaw firms, staff haven’t seen quite the largess (with some notable exceptions). On the other hand, lots of firms instituted austerity measures. But some attorneys have had to lean on the (often dwindling) ranks of support staff even more than usual to make sure nothing gets missed when everyone is working from home. All of which makes the Biglaw tipping balancing act more complex.
So, naturally, we’re asking our readers some important questions about holiday gift giving in Biglaw.
How much will you give support staff, compared to last year?
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How are you giving staff their gifts this year?
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
