Weil has apologised to staff after an April Fools' joke went down like a lead balloon.

When Weil's US associates aren't on drips to keep them at their desks for as long as possible, they're expected to respond to emails before their Blackberry has finished vibrating. So when an email was sent to all lawyers headed "Important New Email Policy" informing them that no emails would be sent between 11pm and 6am or at the weekends to improve work/life balance, there was dancing in the corridors by those still strong enough to jiggle their atrophied limbs.

Some were suspicious, even though the 11pm-6am amnesty seem fairly reasonable and the email signs off, "We are proud to be taking a leadership role in caring about our colleagues' quality of life". Surely the firm wouldn't leverage its goodwill towards staff for a joke?

    "I approve this message"

Apparently it would. Weil's lawyers rushed to tell US blog Above The Law how amused they were:

  • "Please get ahold of Weil’s April fools email. It’s awful and associates are pissed."
  • "If this is true, it’s awesome. If it’s a joke, it’s the worst joke of all time. Especially to someone like me who has been billing 12-16 hour days recently and gets a lot of late night and weekend emails."
  • "April Fools! We don’t really give a shit about you! Now get back to billing."
  • "You must read the last sentence of this ridiculous email. Weil is making a mockery of our hard work."

Weil has a policy of sending an April Fools' email every year, but hiring King Joffrey to write its gags may have brought the fine tradition to an end. Executive partner Barry Wolf was forced to issue an apology conceding that "we obviously got this wrong" and reassuring his furious lawyers that the partners "know and appreciate the hard work you do" and "take work-life balance seriously".

Here's the full high-larious email:



If you've received a loony email, send it to RoF.

Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 10 April 15 12:33

God that's a shocker isn't it? Even worse that they think no emails between 11pm and 6am would be perceived as improving work life balance, whatever the fvck that is supposed to be.

Anonymous 10 April 15 14:12

This is terrible. The policy should actually be put in place and is exactly what is needed across international law firms. If partner cared about their staff anyway

Anonymous 10 April 15 19:34

Cannot agree more with anonymous at 13.12.

I can understand the self-employed, entrepreneurs, barristers, partners or aspiring partners wishing to work all hours and as much as possible. They have a clear financial incentive driving them. For those salaried trainees and 1, 2, 3 etc PQE associates, however, (some of which will have zero partnership aspirations, I might add - probably for the best, realistically speaking) there should be no such expectation.

11 - 6 should already exist as a bare minimum. Of course, it would be asking far too much of the feeble SRA to make any sort of headway here, and unfortunately it's a counter-intuitive policy for US firms that would have workers in battery farms if possible.

Anonymous 14 April 15 18:35

Just kidding! 6 hours of sleep is for losers, not us! Back to work, minions...

Yet another story which just shows how behind the legal world is compared to almost every other industry in terms of working conditions and benefits...