Vacation - what's your expectation vs reality in BigLaw Forum

[Anonymous User]

Do you get reimbursed if you have to cancel a vacation? I personally like hunting and am planning on using some of that biglaw money on some hunts. They can run from the mid 4 figures to low-mid 5 figures and most of that is not refundable. So would I just be majorly screwed??

If you're spending mid 5 figures on a single hunt, you're dumb as fuck and automatically screwed. By all means plan a vacation, but $50,000 would be a shitload even for v10 partners

[Anonymous User]

I'm a junior but I haven't heard of vacations being canceled, just that you need to coordinate + maybe work a bit remote.

Also not sure who you think would reimburse you?

[Anonymous User]

Hey does anyone know what the vacation policies are (or anecdotes) at these firms: Cleary, Debevoise, Milbank.

[Anonymous User]

There are firms that have cancelled vacation reimbursement policies, but not mine. I know some law school friend told me about it years ago. I understand that they work when a partner confirms that X task was essential and then the associate submits receipts for everything they couldn't get a refund for and the firm just writes a check.

[Anonymous User]

Some firms reimburse you for the cancellation costs associated with cancelled trips, like any un-refundable deposits for a hotel or AirBNB, flight cancellation fees, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Jesus you all need to get a grip.

When vacation is booked: “hi staffing, I’m going to be out on vacation X-Y. Let me know if that’s going to be a problem.” … it won’t be if you do it more than 4 weeks out, which you should.

4 weeks before vacation: “hi staffing, reminder that I’m going to be out on vacation X-Y, please let me know who you think would be good to cover my active matters ABC, I probably won’t need for DEF.”

4-1 weeks before vacation: work WITH staffing to find coverage.

In the week before vacation: email to people you’re working with “hi all, reminder I’m out on vacation X-Y. I’ve arranged coverage for all things that needed it, if I haven’t reached out to you about coverage but you think we still need, please let me know today so I can work with [staffing] to sort it ASAP.

Day before vacation: “hi all, reminder I am out on vacation tomorrow - Y. I will not be checking email regularly but will respond when I am able to so please expect delayed responses.”

Set OOO auto-reply to say basically the same thing.

Stop giving people the wrong idea because YOU are incapable of setting boundaries.

That's 5 steps, and for those without a staffing coordinator (officially or not) that's x3-4 or so, for each partner you're working with. So you're talking about potentially 20 different emails and finding coverage for multiple matters. Which is what most of us are doing anyway and complaining about because of how much falls on us. Ideal situation: there's a central person, you notify them once and you're good to go. Or at least it shouldn't be my job to find coverage.

Also can not with the silly "get a grip" stuff? This isn't a pissing contest. Biglaw is a rough environment and we're trying to get through it. Bullying language is just infantile and symptomatic of the toxic culture tbh.

Take your vacation, everything typically works out just fine. Assume it will for you and play dumb if it doesn’t. Communicate you’ll be out but don’t go overboard. Rinse and repeat.

Make sure to take 160 hours of each year. You need it.