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Law Firms Should Offer Healthier Food Options When Paying For Employee Meals

Even if people generally appreciate the free food provided by law firms, more shops should offer healthier food options for attorneys and staff.

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One of my simple pleasures in life is when I am able to score a free meal. When I was in college, I subscribed to an email list that broadcast all of the events on campus that had free food, and I made sure to attend those events to score free grub. In law school, I remember once attending five free food events in one day! Given how broke I was as a student, the free food I was able to score really helped preserve my bottom line and let me devote money toward other purposes. When I started working at law firms, I was happy that many of the shops at which I worked also offered free food for training sessions, team meetings, and other firm events. However, based on conversations I had with individuals within the legal profession over the years, even if people generally appreciate the free food, more shops should offer healthier food options for attorneys and staff.

I worked at four different law firms before opening my own practice around five years ago. Each firm I worked at offered different free food options to attorneys and staff. One offered free pizza at pretty much every event, and the pizza was almost always plain or pepperoni. Another shop at which I worked offered deli sandwiches like turkey, pastrami, roast beef, and the like. A different firm usually only offered really good New York bagels and cream cheese one morning each week, and the only time I ever considered filing a worker’s compensation claim was when I sliced my hand one morning cutting a bagel.

I made sure to eat as much free food as I could while employed at these shops as I did when I was a student. Most of the time I was working as an associate attorney at various shops, I tried to save money so that I could pay off my student loans earlier. Any money I could save on food was money that I could use to pay down my student debt. Moreover, I generally like eating copious amounts of food (and I even participated in a bunch of competitive eating events in my younger years) so any type of free food is a serious windfall for me.

I am a huge fan of deli sandwiches and pizza, so when the law firms at which I worked offered these foods, I was delighted. However, people with whom I worked complained about the food offerings of some law firms. Some individuals tried to eat healthier, and other people with whom I worked were on various diets. They said it was difficult to stick to their eating goals when the law firm only offered unhealthy food to attorneys and staff.

Some of my colleagues also said it was difficult for attorneys and staff to interact with others socially since only unhealthy food was offered by law firms. Eating is often a substantial part of social occasions, and attorneys and staff did not want to seem like poor sports for refusing to eat at various firm events. Some attorneys I spoke with said that this even made it more difficult for them to interact with important partners and be assigned to favorable teams.

I am no expert, but law firms can provide healthier food options without too many issues. For instance, ordering a large assortment of sushi could be good to offer a group of people, and although I am no nutritionist, this could be healthier than pizza or other similar food. Moreover, offering more salads to attorneys and staff can also help employees meet their eating goals while socializing with other people at a law firm event.

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To be clear, I am extremely grateful for all of the law firms at which I worked that offered free food to attorneys and staff during events. This helped people interact with coworkers, and offering food can make it more likely that people will attend an event that is merely optional. However, some people have complained to me over the years that they wished law firms offered healthier food at events, and with some planning, law firms can make events more accessible to people who eat different kinds of food.

Rothman Larger HeadshotJordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.

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