Taking Off During a BigLaw SA Position Forum

[plutarchy]

Has anyone taken off a week for their own wedding? We were planning on getting married later but because of a family situation, we want to push up the date. Will this jeopardize my chances of being offered a job?
Please don't respond with suggestions for different wedding dates, I just want to know what will happen if we pursue this option.
Thanks!

[stevengnehs]

instead of wasting your time asking this question here, you should just email your firm’s HR. there’s literally no downside for asking them.

[RaceJudicata]

instead of wasting your time asking this question here, you should just email your firm’s HR. there’s literally no downside for asking them.

There is a downside. HR will, most likely, say it’s fine... but in reality, it won’t look good. Totally understand a family situation causing to move wedding (e.g., sick family member, etc.), but there is absolutely no reason you need a week off for it....

[kaiser]

Has anyone taken off a week for their own wedding? We were planning on getting married later but because of a family situation, we want to push up the date. Will this jeopardize my chances of being offered a job?
Please don't respond with suggestions for different wedding dates, I just want to know what will happen if we pursue this option.
Thanks!

Not sure why you would need a whole week off for the wedding. If its a matter of taking 2 days off, I'm sure thats fine. But a week seems excessive (I am assuming that week doesn't include honeymoon).

[stevengnehs]

it won’t look good in reality, so what? Not give a summer asso a return offer because of one week off? if law firms do that it won’t look good for them neither and trust me law firms’ care more about their reputation than whether a summer asso’s week long PTO looks good or not, if they care about the latter at all.
BTW, what else can OP do? Just not telling HR until a few days before taking off for wedding? Or reschedule/shorten the wedding? You are just spotting a risk w/o fully evaluating its merits from other perspectives and w/o even giving actual advice. And you are criticizing OP for having a week long wedding. Wow that’s just great lawyering right there.
Of course it will be a totally different story if OP is joining a firm that’s crazy enough to not care about its reputation among law students and law school career offices and is crazy enough to hold grudges against a summer asso who takes a week off for his/her own wedding.

[Anonymous User]

It will probably be fine. There’s a chance it could hurt you. It depends on a lot of things - your firm’s offer rate, the particular proclivities of the partners making offers, your performance as a summer during the weeks you are there, etc.

You will have to decide if you are OK with adding some risk in exchange for this. Even if you go to HR and they tell you “Of course! No problem!” there is still a chance of some risk. A fellow summer of mine back in the day had a similar experience and got an offer but I also know they got a “talking to” with a few weeks left to tell them that they were on the fence. Part of that was their performance but I’m sure the time off didn’t help.

[pianoman4]

I took a few days off for my wedding last summer, and it turned out fine. Talk to HR and give as much notice as you can.

[Mullens]

One or two days is probably fine if you communicate it in advance (and the reason why you have to get married during the summer is a good one). A full week will look bad and very well could lead to a cold or no offer (even at a 100% offer firm).

You also likely will not get paid for any time you take off.

[Mullens]

it won’t look good in reality, so what? Not give a summer asso a return offer because of one week off? if law firms do that it won’t look good for them neither and trust me law firms’ care more about their reputation than whether a summer asso’s week long PTO looks good or not, if they care about the latter at all.
BTW, what else can OP do? Just not telling HR until a few days before taking off for wedding? Or reschedule/shorten the wedding? You are just spotting a risk w/o fully evaluating its merits from other perspectives and w/o even giving actual advice. And you are criticizing OP for having a week long wedding. Wow that’s just great lawyering right there.
Of course it will be a totally different story if OP is joining a firm that’s crazy enough to not care about its reputation among law students and law school career offices and is crazy enough to hold grudges against a summer asso who takes a week off for his/her own wedding.

Law firms cold offer and no offer people every year. Most “100% offer” firms are not truly 100% and they all still have excellent reputations. A cold offer won’t change that. One of the reasons people don’t seem to understand the prevalence of cold offers is that people don’t go around talking about how they got one; it’s embarassing and could harm your reputation.

[diversifiablerisk]

Some biglaw firms already give SAs 2 paid vacation days, so check if your firm does that. Combine that with 2 weekends on either side and 3 unpaid days off, you've got yourself 9 days off, or even 10 if you can schedule it on a long weekend.

[ClubberLang]

Why would you have to miss any time? Just get married on the weekend like everyone else and wait until the SA is over to do your honeymoon or whatever. It might not cost you an offer, but if it became widely known that you were taking off time for a honeymoon, it would rub some people the wrong way because it signals you that aren't taking the summer job very seriously.

[RaceJudicata]

I stand by my previous response. But another post because I am genuinely curious why you need a week for a wedding? Is there a religious aspect I’m not considering? International travel (like asia, not Europe)? I do not see a conceivable reason OP needs a week off for his/her wedding. I also hope a honeymoon isn’t baked into this...

(Yes, I’m married. Took off Thursday and Friday for Saturday wedding.)

[nixy]

Am going to generalize wildly - if the OP is deeply involved with planning the wedding (perhaps more likely if the OP is a woman?) and there are a lot of DYI components, that could explain wanting a week off. (Though I agree it will be a tougher sell than 2 days.)

[Guchster]

Doubt it will jeopardize your chances of being offered a job, as long as your upfront, professional and clear it with HR well in advance (i.e., now). I wouldn't no-offer a summer over it, but I definitely would be a little surprised that you want 1 week off from what is essentially a 10 week job interview. I also personally would not do it--I wouldn't want the stress of wedding planning mucking up my summer and taking away my attention from substantive matters for the remainder of limited time.

Have you asked about moving around start/end dates to see if you can make up the salary from lost days? If it's in the middle of your summer, you're going to need to do some serious planning/communication with your team members. It's going to be tricky to drop everything for one week and pick up where you left off 1 week later. Again, not impossible, but you need to communicate effectively so people don't feel you ghosted/dropped the ball on the remaining portion after skipping 10% (i.e., 1/10th) of your summer gig.

[mrtux45]

Not to hijack, but similar topic and I don't think this question warrants its own thread.

My SO is graduating from a grad program early in my SA. I really want to be there for graduation. This is a reasonable event to take off right? If I know the date of graduation, should I reach out now or closer to my start date?

[thatlawlkid]

Not to hijack, but similar topic and I don't think this question warrants its own thread.

My SO is graduating from a grad program early in my SA. I really want to be there for graduation. This is a reasonable event to take off right? If I know the date of graduation, should I reach out now or closer to my start date?

can you think of a single thing that would be benefited by delaying disclosure or do you like asking rhetorical questions?

[mrtux45]

Not to hijack, but similar topic and I don't think this question warrants its own thread.

My SO is graduating from a grad program early in my SA. I really want to be there for graduation. This is a reasonable event to take off right? If I know the date of graduation, should I reach out now or closer to my start date?

can you think of a single thing that would be benefited by delaying disclosure or do you like asking rhetorical questions?

Thanks! Much appreciated!

[Wubbles]

Not to hijack, but similar topic and I don't think this question warrants its own thread.

My SO is graduating from a grad program early in my SA. I really want to be there for graduation. This is a reasonable event to take off right? If I know the date of graduation, should I reach out now or closer to my start date?

If it's super early, moving your start date might be the best option