News: Ungaretti & Harris' Wellness Program is Focus of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Article

Ungaretti & Harris' Wellness Program was the focus of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article, "Ungaretti lawyers rewarded for healthful behaviors". Attorneys Ed Clancy, Ted Harman, and Mike Tomasek are quoted attesting to the personal and firm-wide benefits experienced since the implementation of the Wellness Program last year.  The firm's Wellness Committee is co-chaired by , Benefits Manager, and Julie Treumann, an associate in the Corporate, Securities & Finance Department.

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Lawyers at Ungaretti & Harris LLP can take yoga or Pilates exercise classes in the office, get a massage for only a dollar minute and eat lots of free fruit in the lunchroom.

With these and other benefits from its wellness program, the premium increase for medical insurance at the firm this year was less than 3 percent, according to benefits manager Bonnie Kelly.

The firm had become accustomed to increases in the double digits. One Ungaretti partner, Edward Clancy, enumerated benefits beyond the monetary gain.

“Pilates and yoga classes right down the hall from my office is a great motivator to exercise regularly and to have some fun with fellow workers,” Clancy said.

“Plus, since taking the classes, I lost weight, reduced my stress and increased my energy, lowered my golf handicap to single digits and grew two inches and a full head of hair!”

In a more sober assessment, Theodore E. Harman, litigation partner at Ungaretti and a marathon runner, said:

“The Pilates class helps burn off some stress at the end of the day, and I hope it will improve my running. I just have to walk across the hall to the class. If it wasn’t so convenient, I probably wouldn’t do it.”

Ungaretti & Harris subsidizes the exercise classes for the employees so each class costs a worker only $5.

The wellness program at Ungaretti was a year old in March.

The firm says it began the program to combat the rising cost of health care insurance.

The idea was to motivate and reward employees for raising their level of physical activity and for participating in health screening tests, and to improve their health knowledge and healthy behavior.

“Our firm’s philosophy has developed into one of preventative medicine,” said Michael F. Tomasek, a partner in the employee benefits and executive compensation group.

“Often it’s lifestyle issues that lead to poor health. Our goal is to give participants the resources and tools to take better care of themselves,” Tomasek said.

“Our hope is that in addition to reducing claims costs,” he added, “we can improve the physical and mental wellbeing of the firm’s people, who are its most valuable asset.”

Tomasek counsels clients in structuring wellness programs.

Julie Treumann, an associate in the corporate, securities and finance department, and Kelly are co-chairs of the Ungaretti Wellness Committee.

According to the firm’s “Wellness Gazette,” the program also provides:

• Free flu shots on site.
• A special healthy lunch menu in the office that changes weekly.
• Subsidies for the “healthy” menu so it costs cost less than the other menu.
• Cases of free fruit in the lunchrooms at least once a week as an alternative to vending machine snacks.

Five free luncheon seminars on such topics as “Yoga at Your Desk” and “Fitness — Meet the Trainer.”
The firm also now has a women’s walking group called the Red Hatters, and it offers gifts for participating in and keeping track of personal exercise, taking health risk appraisals, getting checkups, quitting smoking and learning stress management.

Participants can even get points toward these rewards for reading fitness magazines.

“Rather than use a punitive approach, such as increasing insurance rates for those who don’t participate, the committee’s goal is to help people build and maintain healthy habits and reward them for doing so,” Kelly said.

The firm has more than 100 lawyers, and about 230 employees in all. Ungaretti has upped the small budget for its wellness program. Last year, the budget was $5,000. This year it’s $8,750.

Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company.