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Does anyone know the protocol for taking time off over the summer(2L SA)? I will very likely have a wedding to attend over the summer(but the exact date has not been set yet), and while it is technically possible for me to attend it without taking any time off, it will be very hard(it's in Europe). It's my oldest friend(best friend of 20 years) and I desperately want to go, is it acceptable to ask for a day or two off to attend? Or should I just suck it up and fly overnight friday, land saturday morning and then fly back on sunday night?

I'd say suck it up

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know the protocol for taking time off over the summer(2L SA)? I will very likely have a wedding to attend over the summer(but the exact date has not been set yet), and while it is technically possible for me to attend it without taking any time off, it will be very hard(it's in Europe). It's my oldest friend(best friend of 20 years) and I desperately want to go, is it acceptable to ask for a day or two off to attend? Or should I just suck it up and fly overnight friday, land saturday morning and then fly back on sunday night?

For heaven's sake it's your best friend's wedding in Europe.

This is a tough one. There are a lot of things that come into play here.

One big thing is whether you will be missing anything other than just a day in the office, such as a firm event. (probably won't know until you start/get the summer schedule.) if you find out you would miss a firm event I would say don't do it under any circumstances.

Another thing is just getting a sense of how the partners you are working with might feel about it.

It sucks, but bottom line is SA is basically a 3 month long interview, and you don't want to be seen as someone who is already trying to take days off, because if they are looking for reasons to no-offer, it could be one of them. Probably sounds overly dramatic, but I think that however small the risk, you can't deny that it is a risk.

Purely anecdotal, but I summered with a guy that took a couple of days off for a trip he had planned, missed a firm event for something, and was the only summer to get no offered. I'm not willing to say it was the sole reason for the no-offer, but he seemed to do good work/get along with people otherwise, so who knows. Could come across as not being a team player.

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know the protocol for taking time off over the summer(2L SA)? I will very likely have a wedding to attend over the summer(but the exact date has not been set yet), and while it is technically possible for me to attend it without taking any time off, it will be very hard(it's in Europe). It's my oldest friend(best friend of 20 years) and I desperately want to go, is it acceptable to ask for a day or two off to attend? Or should I just suck it up and fly overnight friday, land saturday morning and then fly back on sunday night?

Tell them about it now and take the 2 days off you need.

A couple things:

(1) Employers like to know things well in advance

(2) My firm specifically asked us to notify them of any conflicts, like weddings. They know that people get married over the summer.

(3) Telling a firm well in advance about missing a day won't result in a no-offer. Firms don't like to waste $30k.

vamedic03 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know the protocol for taking time off over the summer(2L SA)? I will very likely have a wedding to attend over the summer(but the exact date has not been set yet), and while it is technically possible for me to attend it without taking any time off, it will be very hard(it's in Europe). It's my oldest friend(best friend of 20 years) and I desperately want to go, is it acceptable to ask for a day or two off to attend? Or should I just suck it up and fly overnight friday, land saturday morning and then fly back on sunday night?

Tell them about it now and take the 2 days off you need.

A couple things:

(1) Employers like to know things well in advance

(2) My firm specifically asked us to notify them of any conflicts, like weddings. They know that people get married over the summer.

(3) Telling a firm well in advance about missing a day won't result in a no-offer. Firms don't like to waste $30k.

What?! This is the legal employment forum. The sky is falling, or going to fall, even skies nobody has any idea about. If you don't work 7 day weeks and improve your GPA you will get no offered and/or deported. Please stop being reasonable.

Don't know how much you care about this, but if you skip 2 days, you'll be losing ~$1200 in salary. If that's worth having an easy travel schedule, I think the firm will be fine with it, but seems like a lot of money to throw away IMO.

My wife's sister is getting married this summer. I already told her I'm not coming. I need the money, and no wedding is worth giving the impression I have priorities other than getting a permanent offer. Hell, I'd miss my own wedding if it was this summer.

Renzo wrote:My wife's sister is getting married this summer. I already told her I'm not coming. I need the money, and no wedding is worth giving the impression I have priorities other than getting a permanent offer. Hell, I'd miss my own wedding if it was this summer.

and this is why the legal profession sucks

vamedic03 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Does anyone know the protocol for taking time off over the summer(2L SA)? I will very likely have a wedding to attend over the summer(but the exact date has not been set yet), and while it is technically possible for me to attend it without taking any time off, it will be very hard(it's in Europe). It's my oldest friend(best friend of 20 years) and I desperately want to go, is it acceptable to ask for a day or two off to attend? Or should I just suck it up and fly overnight friday, land saturday morning and then fly back on sunday night?

Tell them about it now and take the 2 days off you need.

A couple things:

(1) Employers like to know things well in advance

(2) My firm specifically asked us to notify them of any conflicts, like weddings. They know that people get married over the summer.

(3) Telling a firm well in advance about missing a day won't result in a no-offer. Firms don't like to waste $30k.

Good, reasonable response. Unless you have multiple weddings to attend, one Friday off shouldn't hurt you, as long as you are upfront about it. Also, if you can, compensate for that day somehow. Stay later on other days, come in on another weekend...Heck, offer to do work remotely, if at all possible (kill time on that international flight writing a memo). If anything, this will show the firm that you'll be able to handle things as a permanent employee. Various things do come up in life, and if you can prove that you're capable of making adjustments as necessary, that can actually leave a favorable impression.

I'm in the same situation...a friend of mine is getting married smack in the middle of the summer.

I'm still in the process of deciding whether I'll go because I'm not as close with this person (although I get the feeling people not in this world don't understand why taking a day off is such a big deal and I feel like I'm expected to do so....or maybe its just the whole wedding planning mentality)

If I do decide to go, I think I will approach the situation by e-mailing first a recruiter in advance and explaining the situation, and asking if it would be possible to just work an extra day or work over the weekend. But I'm not crazy about this idea.

However, I have heard that getting the work done is much more important than getting it done in the office, so if you can do what you need to do over the weekend you might be able to make it work.

Renzo wrote:Hell, I'd miss my own wedding if it was this summer.

Your firm should have a clearly specified policy regarding this. It's totally fine to take a day, even if you're missing a big summer associate event (you don't have to attend all of them, by the way).