Daily Diary

Crèche test dummies

Posted 20/04/2007 by The Daily Diary

The latest bid by a law firm to up its cuddliness count and offer lawyers and employees better work-life balance comes from magic circle giant Clifford Chance (CC).

The City titan has just unveiled its new state-of-the-art crèche in its Frankfurt office – a sprawling two-floor complex open from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Initiatives at the snappily-named Kids' Chance include 'Toy Talk', where the little kinder can sharpen up their English (in case they get relocated to CC's London crèche, presumably), children's lab (where they can "discover their spirit of research" according to the firm) and the wonderful sounding 'frolic room'.

Fears have been raised that babies on secondment to London will have to hit CC's higher 1,700 annual gurgling-and-smiling targets and the firm has warned that babies hoping to graduate to short trousers will have to hit strict performance criteria in future.

But the lucky mites can look forward to a range of important early life-lessons, like not over-lawyering a play-date, the dangers of talking to strange but charming Americans and how to send emails implying you pad your nappies to the international media.

A future CC partner shows his true colours at the firm's new crèche