Wigdor LLP bucked the trend of flexible office returns, requiring all employees to return full-time this summer. But the plaintiffs employment law firm is trying to instill flexibility another way—employing a full-time personal trainer for its workers. The New York-based boutique is paying six figures to have a trainer on-call at a nearby gym, founding partner Doug Wigdor said in an interview. Wigdor LLP is one of several law firms adding unique office perks in attempting to reacclimate employees to in-office work after more than a year apart. Although the legal industry has charted several different paths to in-person work returns, firms are all grappling with a similar question—how to keep people happy and motivated to do the job in an era when competition and stress have skyrocketed in the legal industry and young attorney attrition is high. Fitness is among the answers, some firm leaders believe. Wigdor said he didn't get any direct pushback when he told workers the firm expected them to "permanently" return to the office five days a week by July 6. He said that decision came "well before" the idea to hire the trainer— with whom he began working with individually right before the pandemic—but that he understands the office return comes with challenges and that the firm's hiring of a personal trainer is in part to combat them. "I readily acknowledge that comes with potential stresses and anxieties," Wigdor said about returning to the office after more than a year. "And I thought it would really be a great idea for the trainer I'd worked with, and who I trust—and he's just so positive and uplifting—to hire him" and to have him be accessible to both attorneys and staff. Wigdor said the firm originally considered outfitting one of its office kitchens into a gym until he realized there's a gym only a half-block away where trainers can bring their clients. He said around 14 of the firm's 25 employees have scheduled sessions with the trainer, Derian Calnick, and that although employees didn't completely return to in-person work by late June, he's noticed "a definite uptick" in happiness among those he saw and who have utilized the benefit. The firm has also incentivized workers to return to in-person work by reimbursing for Uber and other ride-hailing services if they didn't feel comfortable riding mass transit. That benefit will end, Wigdor said, but it was something else "to ease the transition" back to the office. Some employees at the plaintiff employment boutique said they had mixed feelings about the office return when it was announced. Renan Varghese, of counsel at Wigdor LLP, said he hadn't been on the subway since March 2020, right before the wave of COVID-19 shutdowns across the country, and that he had to overcome that and other "mental hurdles" to start going back to in-person work. But he said having Calnick on-call has been a helpful incentive. "Having the opportunity to lose some of that quarantine weight and get back into shape is something I would've wanted to do anyway, regardless if the firm hired a trainer," Varghese said in an interview. "And the fact the firm is helping with that, and making it open to everybody at the firm and accommodating people with appointments, is 100% a positive thing." Regular workouts have encouraged some employees to return more than they would otherwise—even before the mandatory deadline of July 6. "I understand why we're going back full time, and it definitely makes sense to me, though I did enjoy some of the benefits of working from home while we were remote," said Lindsay Goldbrum, an associate at Wigdor LLP, who said she started commuting from the New Jersey suburbs into the city on a voluntary basis, partly due to the physical trainer on site. One other benefit of the workday workouts: they provide fodder for the water cooler. "It's a topic of conversation," Goldbrum said. "People seem happier, and it's something a lot of us are bonding over— sessions and enjoying working out with him." The move made sense for the trainer, too, Wigdor said. "Derian himself actually was having a difficult time adjusting to post-COVID. He had been doing everything virtually," Wigdor said. Another New York-based litigation firm is leaning on exercise. White Plains-based Yankwitt LLP just purchased around 20 Peloton bikes for each of its lawyers and staff members to use at home. Yankwitt LLP is planning a return to the office after Labor Day, founder and managing partner Russell Yankwitt said in an interview, but with the "understanding that people have needs at home, and to be flexible." Still, he said, attorneys learn more in the office, especially junior associates. The roughly 20 Peloton bikes Yankwitt personally purchased for his employees, at a cost of about $40,000 in total, is not a hard-and-fast incentive to return to the office. But the firm leader said it does help set the firm apart in recruiting and retention. "The goal wasn't to use it for recruiting," he said, but "when we talk to new recruits, it separates us from other firms in Westchester." Larger firms, too, are trying to be creative with expenses to entice workers back and keep them happy once they're there. At Polsinelli, the firm has sent a message across offices and practice groups: be open to providing incentives. Even simple ideas—say, purchasing ice cream on certain afternoons—are a "big part of the conversation" as workers consider coming back to the office this summer, firm chair Chase Simmons said. "We've tried to say, 'Let's be creative. We'll do our best as a firm to support it'," Simmons said in an interview last month. Crowell & Moring chair Phil Inglima noted partners and group leaders have hosted events at their homes in all locations, and even just making time for people to gather outside an office cafeteria, for instance, has been a step toward bringing people back. "Individual offices, individual groups, are simply inviting people to do things together, onsite or off, primarily outdoors," Inglima said. "And they all have the feel of a reunion. Even just getting people on the patio to have lunch on a Wednesday or Thursday—you see more and more people each time."