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1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:32 pm
by ItalianLawyer
I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year. It will be in August.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year. I am transactional/corporate.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:37 pm
by BeenDidThat
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1850 bh per year.
Probably not, but some firms might be exceptions. You'd know better than us if your firm is an exception.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:45 pm
by Anonymous User
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1850 bh per year.
1850 is really low for a biglaw. 1.5 week vacation is very common in any law firm.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:49 pm
by ItalianLawyer
Anonymous User wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1850 bh per year.
1850 is really low for a biglaw. 1.5 week vacation is very common in any law firm.
Whoops. I meant 1950.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:50 pm
by rpupkin
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year.
You've been working at your firm for two years. Do you really have no sense of the length of your fellow associates' vacations? This is one of those "firm culture" questions that you (or at least your fellow associates at your firm) are in a better position to answer.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:58 pm
by ItalianLawyer
rpupkin wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year.
You've been working at your firm for two years. Do you really have no sense of the length of your fellow associates' vacations? This is one of those "firm culture" questions that you (or at least your fellow associates at your firm) are in a better position to answer.
That's the thing, no one really takes vacations, but that's mostly because they are gunners. The culture here is actually pretty relaxed for big law (Atlanta in general is slower paced, as one would imagine). Five business days seems to be the most common for the few that do vacation.

I am just wondering if it will look bad to be one of the few associates who vacays AND takes off 7.5 business days.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:19 pm
by BeenDidThat
ItalianLawyer wrote:
rpupkin wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year.
You've been working at your firm for two years. Do you really have no sense of the length of your fellow associates' vacations? This is one of those "firm culture" questions that you (or at least your fellow associates at your firm) are in a better position to answer.
That's the thing, no one really takes vacations, but that's mostly because they are gunners. The culture here is actually pretty relaxed for big law (Atlanta in general is slower paced, as one would imagine). Five business days seems to be the most common for the few that do vacation.

I am just wondering if it will look bad to be one of the few associates who vacays AND takes off 7.5 business days.
Are the partners losers or bros? If bros, definitely vacation as you please. Nobody respects gunner morons who don't take vacation except other gunner morons who become loser partners.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:32 pm
by ruski
ItalianLawyer wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1850 bh per year.
1850 is really low for a biglaw. 1.5 week vacation is very common in any law firm.
Whoops. I meant 1950.
this is still low. do you really work in biglaw

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:40 pm
by Anonymous User
BeenDidThat wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:
rpupkin wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year.
You've been working at your firm for two years. Do you really have no sense of the length of your fellow associates' vacations? This is one of those "firm culture" questions that you (or at least your fellow associates at your firm) are in a better position to answer.
That's the thing, no one really takes vacations, but that's mostly because they are gunners. The culture here is actually pretty relaxed for big law (Atlanta in general is slower paced, as one would imagine). Five business days seems to be the most common for the few that do vacation.

I am just wondering if it will look bad to be one of the few associates who vacays AND takes off 7.5 business days.
Are the partners losers or bros? If bros, definitely vacation as you please. Nobody respects gunner morons who don't take vacation except other gunner morons who become loser partners.
What would gunner do if the market is slow pace and the bh is only 1850/1950? If anything 1.5 week is too short for your situation.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:45 pm
by ItalianLawyer
ruski wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1850 bh per year.
1850 is really low for a biglaw. 1.5 week vacation is very common in any law firm.
Whoops. I meant 1950.
this is still low. do you really work in biglaw
Why would I lie? The minimum is 1950; anything above that triggers a tiered bonus system.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:45 pm
by ItalianLawyer
BeenDidThat wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:
rpupkin wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:I will be working a half-day on Wednesday and then jetting to Europe until the following Sunday. It will have been over a year since my last vacation. I will be entering my third year.

Is this too long?

To give you some context, this is an Atlanta law firm that requires 1950 bh per year.
You've been working at your firm for two years. Do you really have no sense of the length of your fellow associates' vacations? This is one of those "firm culture" questions that you (or at least your fellow associates at your firm) are in a better position to answer.
That's the thing, no one really takes vacations, but that's mostly because they are gunners. The culture here is actually pretty relaxed for big law (Atlanta in general is slower paced, as one would imagine). Five business days seems to be the most common for the few that do vacation.

I am just wondering if it will look bad to be one of the few associates who vacays AND takes off 7.5 business days.
Are the partners losers or bros? If bros, definitely vacation as you please. Nobody respects gunner morons who don't take vacation except other gunner morons who become loser partners.
The main partner I work for is a total bro.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:58 pm
by rpupkin
ItalianLawyer wrote:The main partner I work for is a total bro.
I have a wild idea: You could actually talk to that partner about your vacation. "Hey, I'm thinking of taking a week and a half of vacation in Europe in July. Is that cool?"

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 2:07 pm
by Anonymous User
First year - V10 - NYC - taking 2 weeks vacation after just 7 months. This is a serious question?

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 2:10 pm
by ItalianLawyer
rpupkin wrote:
ItalianLawyer wrote:The main partner I work for is a total bro.
I have a wild idea: You could actually talk to that partner about your vacation. "Hey, I'm thinking of taking a week and a half of vacation in Europe in July. Is that cool?"
Maybe I should even invite him to come with???

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:00 pm
by anongoodnurse
Grrr. Thought I posted that anonymously. I had personal details in there.

tl;dr: A few partners will care that you take vacation at all. If you take more than Thursday-Sunday-next, more will care that you are taking a "partners-only" two-week vacation. Most won't care.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:02 pm
by mvp99
do it in August, usually the slowest month of the year

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:05 pm
by BarbellDreams
When I was at a firm I had a partner who was more or less my de facto mentor. He was fairly young for a partner and h was very laid back (we talked sports all the time). I had a few questions re: vacation and holidays and I flat out asked him. He was cool and explained how much I can and can't take and how it would look. He even gave me a guide like "If you take a week and a half off in June you probably shouldn't ask for time off until at least Thanksgiving". I hope you have a partner you're close to and can just ask candidly.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:55 pm
by Anonymous User
BarbellDreams wrote:When I was at a firm I had a partner who was more or less my de facto mentor. He was fairly young for a partner and h was very laid back (we talked sports all the time). I had a few questions re: vacation and holidays and I flat out asked him. He was cool and explained how much I can and can't take and how it would look. He even gave me a guide like "If you take a week and a half off in June you probably shouldn't ask for time off until at least Thanksgiving". I hope you have a partner you're close to and can just ask candidly.
November is 5 months after june. you do NOT have to spread your vacations that far apart, or if you do you're basically not using your full amount. if you're smart you all take all the weeks off with gov holidays in them, that way you get 5 weeks a year instead of 4 as you rack up that extra vacation day each time

also in a large corporate group no will know or care. a deal lasts ~2 months. so as long as you wait at least 2 months so you're not requesting vacation twice on one deal your fine. after two months you'll be on totally different matters and no one will know when the last time you took vaca was.

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:57 pm
by ruski
wasn't meant to be anon

Re: 1.5 week European vacation for Biglaw Jr. Assoc. too long?

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 8:46 am
by dixiecupdrinking
Chiming in to agree this is fine -- ESPECIALLY in August. Of course it depends on the firm but it would be beyond the pale for this to be viewed negatively.