Vacation Forum

[Anonymous User]

First year who started about a month ago here. My firm gives twenty days of vacation and at orientation we were encouraged not to be afraid to take it. Edit: I am in lit if it makes a difference.

Twenty days, when you add weekends and possibly firm holidays, is a lot. If you were to take it all at once one could realistically be gone a month.

Do people really leave for a month? I have two trips I would like to take this year, both that must happen in the summer due to the destination. One would last about a week, and I could take over July 4th weekend so some days wouldn’t couldn’t against me (and my absence might not be so noticeable). One would take a little over two weeks and has to happen over Labor Day.

I could spread the trips out, taking one in early July and the other the last week and first week of September. I could also take the two trips at the same time (second week of August until second week of September) and use up the four weeks in one shot.

I am not sure which one would look better (it truly doesn’t matter to me). I don’t want to get sideways looks for being, “gone again” after having just left. I also don’t want to get sideways looks for being gone a noticeably long period of time (one full month). For what it’s worth, I will be in remote areas doing outdoor stuff for both these trips and my access to e-mail and phone will likely be spotty and limited.

If it came down to it I could forgo the longer trip over Labor Day and just do the one week destination. I could then use my other days for a trip a different time of year when people might not remember my last break as vividly, but I’m not really gung ho about traveling another time of year/to another destination.

TLDR:// I want to make a good impression this first year, but have also been encouraged to take all my vacation (which is a lot) and thus am wondering the best way to take it.

[2013]

If you’re slow, no one will care. Litigation is very up and down with lulls. The only issue may be if there is a big case going on when you decide to take the vacation. No way to avoid some people commenting on you being gone. That being said, taking four consecutive weeks is not recommended. The two separate trips would be better especially if they are both around holidays

[Elston Gunn]

Definitely don’t take 4 weeks in a row. I also think the two trips are probably fine but I wouldn’t make a firm commitment to do both until you have more experience at your firm and a better feel for what’s workable.

Does your firm have an hours requirement for bonus? That’s another thing to consider. Considering how long it often takes first years fully in the swing of things, it’s far from guaranteed you’ll hit 2000 (or even 1800 if that’s the minimum, though obviously more doable) if you take your full four weeks.

[Anonymous User]

I agree with the others. Do the two separate vacations, but definitely not 4 consecutive weeks. Biglaw vacations should not be longer than 2 weeks. I took a 3 week vacation recently and got a lot of shit for it.

[Anonymous User]

I agree with the others. Do the two separate vacations, but definitely not 4 consecutive weeks. Biglaw vacations should not be longer than 2 weeks. I took a 3 week vacation recently and got a lot of shit for it.

Depends on where your hours are. I’ll end up at 2700+ for the year and am taking 3 weeks off at the end of the year / beginning of next year. I was asked if I was leaving (I’m not) and I doubt anyone I work with is going to say anything. Could care less about face time with people I don’t work with.

[gingerbread]

One of the associates on my team is taking 3 weeks at once, but it works because she's going over Christmas/New Years when things are slow anyway. At other times I think there would be a lot of side-eye, unless it was for a wedding and honeymoon. Generally folks take a week at a time.

[Anonymous User]

Echoing the others, spread it out. My wife took a total of 3 weeks for our wedding + honeymoon. I think that's probably the only situation where more than 2 weeks is generally encouraged.

My recommendation is to stick to ~1 week trips, maybe one two-week trip. Between those two trips, plus a day or two here or there (around Thanksgiving, or the holidays, a long holiday weekend, etc.), that'll be your 20 days.

[Anonymous User]

Incredibly firm-dependent, but I would err on the side of not taking multiple vacations (especially of more than 1 week and/or where you are inaccessible by email or phone) during your first year at the firm. Once you have a better sense of what your firm and group is like, you can likely start taking longer vacations then.

[almondjoy]

Incredibly firm-dependent, but I would err on the side of not taking multiple vacations (especially of more than 1 week and/or where you are inaccessible by email or phone) during your first year at the firm. Once you have a better sense of what your firm and group is like, you can likely start taking longer vacations then.

Fixed. No one here knows what is normal at your firm. Just ask some older associates what’s normal and do that.

[Anonymous User]

I think it depends a lot on your practice group. I do M&A at a V10 and we are actually encouraged to take our vacations in 2-3 week trips. Because we are on fewer matters at any given time, this is less disruptive to the group as they can just staff another associate on the deal to cover. It is much less efficient to find coverage for only a 1 week vacation and hard to justify to the client adding another associate.

For specialists at our firm, it seems to be encouraged to take more frequent but shorter vacations. They can be on many matters at a time, so it is a bit more difficult to find coverage on a matter by matter basis so I think they just have another associate or two cover all their matters while they are out.

For what its worth, I ended up taking 2 weeks vacation my first year but regret not taking one more week later in the year. Everyone in my group was very supportive and encouraged me to get my vacation on the calendar. Partners in my group seemed to recognize that it was in their best interest for accociates to take a quality break every once in a while so that they do not prematurely burn out. I’ve heard our office is unique though in that associates and partners will go out of their way to avoid bugging people on vacation.

My recommendation is to get your vacation on the calendar as early as possible. Gives you something to look forward to and increases the likelihood that you will actually be able to use it. Much easier to simply give partners a heads up when you are staffed on a new deal that you have a scheduled vacation coming up in a couple months than to try and ask permission to take a vacation after you are already staffed on the matter.

[Anonymous User]

This is completely firm and group-specific. I caution against using this forum as a means to figure out what is normal at your firm. Ask seniors and midlevels you have a good relationship with.

I've worked at two firms. The first actively encouraged 2+ week vacations, but that was just my group. It allowed them to completely take you off a project and bring someone else in to cover. The group actually would not grant vacations of less than 1 full week because subbing someone in on a project for only a few days at a time was a pain. This was in an IM practice.

Second firm has no formal policy (outside of how many days you are granted) or any sort of approval process. People take vacation when they want and for how long they want. It's on you to work out coverage with other people in the group/your senior associates. This is in an M&A practice.