'We give associates credit for mindfulness': McDermott's London boss on culture and the $2.8bn Schulte merger

McDermott offers its London lawyers something pretty rare in Big Law: actual billable hours credit for taking time out to look after their mental health.

"Associates get credit for mindfulness hours," London managing partner Aymen Mahmoud tells us in a conversation for The Non-Billable Podcast. "We were the first firm, as we understand it, to do that."

The policy allows associates to count activities like meditation, exercise or even a walk around outside towards their billable hour targets. "If meditating is my approach to mindfulness, or sport, or just taking a moment to breathe - I can get billable credit as if it were client time," Mahmoud explains.

Rethinking talent

The initiative is part of a broader rethink of how law firms treat talent in London’s ultra-competitive market. McDermott already pays trainees at the top of the market, while associates are on the same scale as its New York office - with no "modified Cravath scale" in sight, Mahmoud adds. But he thinks money alone is not enough.

"If you hire talent and it finds it an unpleasant experience and doesn’t want to stay, you’ve only dealt with half the problem [of keeping the best people]," he says. "It isn’t just that we pay people well. We actually provide free external access to therapists. We encourage it."

Mahmoud argues the investment is also good business. "If you’re going to get the best people, you have to invest in them early," he says. "The greatest revenue-generating firms in the world all pay top dollar to their people. So if clients do feel strongly about it, it isn’t reflected in where they’re spending their money."

Culture as a differentiator

The policy comes as McDermott recently pulled off one of the biggest Big Law mergers in recent years: its $2.8 billion tie-up with New York firm Schulte Roth & Zabel. Mahmoud believes the firm’s culture will prove a big differentiator as it looks to grow and establish itself "within the top five in every area that we have people on the ground in London".

Listen to the full conversation with Aymen Mahmoud on The Non-Billable Podcast.