VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/32189
6 A 2011 BEST PLACES TO WORK 1ST PLACE S ince launching Las Vegas law firm Craig P. Kenny & Associates in 1995, personal injury attorney Craig Kenny kept running out of space. Frustrated with frequent office expansions and relocations to keep pace with company growth, Kenny opted in 2007 to build a facility to accommodate his staff of 36 employees. Located downtown–where many other firms are housed in crumbling converted homes originally constructed in the 1940s–the company’s new digs opened in January, and it was worth the wait. “We have a four-story building, with the first floor for parking, and the second and third floors for office space,” said Kenny, who obtained his Juris Doctorate from Tulane University in New Orleans. “But the fourth floor is the employee fun floor, where we have a half-court basketball court, a gym and locker rooms, a theater, a professional kitchen, Wii bowling, air hockey, foosball, arcade and pinball machines and free vending machines. Work should be as exciting as home in the sense that you want to have all the comforts.” Besides providing a veritable employee playroom, Kenny is also big on the basics of employee satisfaction, such as flex time, 401(k) with a 4 percent match, and 100 percent medical, dental and vision coverage. But bigger is better when it comes to the value he places on his staff. “We have an employee appreciation day where I take the whole firm and their families to Disneyland, and we also have something called Christmas Wishes, where people tell me what they wish for,” Kenny said. “For example, one employee just went to Hawaii for five days, and I paid for that, and another is going to New York in June to see a Broadway play, and I’ll pay for the hotel, the airfare and the show. I take the people who work here very seriously.” Dedicated to making a mark in the field of personal injury, workers’ compensation, medical negligence and criminal defense, Kenny is as committed to the legal profession as he is to his employees. “I lost both of my older brothers–one two months before I was born and the other I2ND PLACE A nyone who has ever worked in an office environment is all-too-familiar with that mid-afternoon slump–that sluggish feeling that settles in after lunch when the effects of the iced tea have worn off but the meatball VEGAS INC SpECIAl publICAtIoN CRAIG P. KENNY & ASSOCIATES 14 years later–in personal injury accidents, and the attorneys treated my parents, who were intelligent hard-working immigrants, like they were stupid,” Kenny said. “I decided I was going to become a lawyer, and a better lawyer than the fools who represented my folks. I have passion, and we’re good at what we do because we really care about what we do.” — Danielle Birkin developed a strategy for combating the afternoon crash. “Every day at 2:30 we have a party NCORP SERVICES sub and cheese fries haven’t. The folks at Henderson-based InCorp Services, Inc.–a 13-year-old privately held provider of registered agent, corporate filing and related services for Fortune 500 companies, law firms and small business–have train, where we turn on the music really loud and dress in ridiculous costumes and just go nuts for 15 minutes, all in celebration of one person we select each day from our compliment box,” said Karolyn Knight, who joined InCorp six years ago and serves as the company’s director of affiliate relations. “It gets us going and really gets the blood pumping. We also party like there’s no tomorrow, because we believe the people you party with are the people you value and embrace.” Knight said InCorp also has a company book club and a monthly beer pong night, and is in the process of assembling a dodgeball team. “We’re also putting together a movie night, but are still working out the logistics of whose house we are going to invade,” she said, adding that the company mirrors its culture after that of zappos.com and Google. “A happy team means happy clients, so it is absolutely essential for everybody to want to come to work .” — Danielle Birkin