Ebenezer Scrooge may have made several attempts to interfere with this year’s round of holiday parties. But, for most recession-hit law firms, the show must go on — even if the champagne might not be flowing quite as freely as it once did.
It’s a question of tone, says Jacques Bisson, chief administrative officer at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. "We feel that we need to do something for people, but considering we’re still in a recession, we’re doing things in a more reasonable fashion."
For many firms, a swank holiday party is part of the "brand" of the firm — a way to show they value their employees by taking the effort to make the holiday season special. This year, Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, for example, was named one of the Greater Toronto Area’s top 90 employers by The Toronto Star. One of the reasons listed for making the list was Blakes’ "very unique Christmas parties — with employee-directed short films and even employee musical performances."
At McCarthy’s, celebrating in a more reasonable fashion means a 15 to 20 percent cut in the budget for this year’s festivities. But, the savings have been discreetly engineered. "When [hiring] a band, you could find one at [$15,000] or [$10,000]," says Bisson, who is based in Montreal.
"It’s more to be cost conscious, but we didn’t want to be extreme. Like other firms, we’ve done cuts in people and cuts in expenses. We feel that we need to celebrate at this point in time. We really want to recognize all the efforts people have made."
Law firms often hire out high-end hotels for their end-of-year festivities, but the times they are a changin’. The Toronto office of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP is holding its party at the office this year.
"We didn’t want to be seen as spending what we had in the past, but we did want to make staff feel appreciated because it has been a tough year, not only for the office, but also for families," says Heather Caldwell, general manager of Gowlings’ Toronto office.
"In going off-(site), we didn’t know if we would be sending the right message in terms of the year we’ve had," she says. "To me it’s about the people, not the place. We’ll still make sure we get together and make it fun."
In the run-up to the festive season, the mood seems to be restrained. Even those firms that claim not to have suffered during the recession are not in all-out celebration mode. Maybe it’s the return of the spirit of the season, but there’s an uncommon whiff of humility in the air.
"Staff aren’t worried about whether they’ll be getting the same parties as before. We’re feeling good we survived the last year. It’s been a rough one. Isn’t it nice we survived it?" says a Toronto-based partner at a big seven firm.
"You look at the news and see how much some firms have been affected. There’s a mood of thankfulness. There are a lot of people that just don’t have jobs any more," he reflects dolefully.
Stephen Bowman, managing partner at Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto, says there’s no change of plan for this year’s shindig. The office will have its party at a hotel, with dinner, a free bar and a DJ. "Whether in good times or bad, we wouldn’t scale back," he says.
"Throughout the year, we’ve heard about other law firms that have cancelled events or scaled back. You could make an argument that it’s as important as ever at times when people are nervous."
Don Higa at Macleod Dixon LLP in Calgary is of a similar mind. People have been apprehensive since the economic downturn, he says. Maybe, with business in general having pulled through the worst, "there’s more of a mood to do something."
Grant Jameson, managing partner at Ogilvy Renault LLP in Ottawa, says the office will have a "quiet event" with cocktails and dinner. It’s the traditional format. There won’t be any austerity moves. "In the current times, out of gratitude to staff, we wouldn’t cancel it," he says.
Let’s just say that most firms will be partying — as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince might have put it — like it’s 2009. And, if this year has been characterized for the most part by ailing markets, the last quarter has also seen rising panic over H1N1.
Jameson seems to be more focused on H1N1 than the markets. "We’re not allowing fear of a health crisis to stop us from doing things," he says. But, the firm is "keeping an eye open." Were there a spike in cases, they would defer to a later date.
Bottles of antiseptic hand gel featuring the Ogilvy Renault logo will be taking their place next to the cocktails and spirits. "I don’t think [there] should be a social stigma attached to using Purell before eating," says Jameson.
The special edition bottles were premiered in November at a Canadian Club of Ottawa gathering, with Canada’s chief public health officer, David Butler-Jones, in attendance.
Changed times indeed. H1N1 has also been on the minds of party planners at Gowlings and McCarthys. Children of the latter’s employees may be severely disappointed as their parties have been cancelled this year over flu concerns.
Wait a minute, could Scrooge be masquerading as a health inspector to get his penny-pinching way? Bisson insists that the cancellation, in offices across the country, is "not due to financial reasons.
"The only thing we decided to drop is the kids’ Christmas party because we didn’t want to put [them] together at this time… We would do something at some other point, maybe for Easter," he says. Kids, take note.
So, barring some major public health catastrophe — in Bisson’s words, one that would warrant the cancellation of a Habs game at Montreal’s Bell Centre — it seems lawyers will be celebrating the end of a challenging year quietly and gratefully. There probably won’t be as much sniffing over cost-cutting as there might have been in an ordinary year.
Except when it comes to one small detail. Whatever the year’s profits, most law firms don’t extend invitations to spouses. It’s a tradition that persists from year to year, from coast to coast. And, it’s the only grumble that lawyers express off the record. After all, what’s a holiday party without a tender kiss under the mistletoe?
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