disability accommodation in biglaw Forum

[Anonymous User]

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[s1m4]

I have a sleep disability that causes chronic fatigue during the day, and requires that i spend a decent amount of time in bed (at least 6-7 hours a night). is there any benefit to letting the firm know about my disability or should i just shut up and deal?

I think its OK. I need 6-7 hours of sleep at night or am extremely fatigued during the day. I always get at least that amount every night, except, over a career of 6 years in biglaw transactional, I have had to pull an all nighter 4 times, and maybe a few times a month have to work past 11pm and be on a call at 8am.

[Sackboy]

Yeah, if you're willing to grind throughout the day, even in the transactional world, you can normally get 6-7 hours of sleep.

[Idontwanttomakeaname]

I would not bring it up if I were you... needing 6-7 hours of sleep to not feel tired during the day makes you a normal human and I doubt that anyone will be particularly sympathetic to why YOU actually need more sleep than everyone else. Which is not to say that wanting to sleep 6-7 hours a night is an unreasonable request, I just can’t conceive of it as a disability.

[Anonymous User]

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[Idontwanttomakeaname]

just to make things clearer, the disorder i have is sleep apnea. I have chronic fatigue no matter how much sleep i get, but it's not debilitating. if i get a low amount of sleep, it does become debilitating. I hope to have it permanently solved through surgery in the next few years.

I think the answer is probably don't bring it up, but i'm wondering if that clarifying information changes anything.

Yeah while I sympathize, I do not think that the people you work for are gonna make sure that you get a full night’s sleep because you have sleep apnea. Sleeping less than 6-7 hours in a night is shitty for everyone and while it may be shittier for you, I would not expect much if any sympathy. I would try to pick a firm/practice that has more predictable hours if this is a serious concern for you because if you went to like a big NYC corporate practice and tried to use that sort excuse it would not work out super well for you

[nixy]

just to make things clearer, the disorder i have is sleep apnea. I have chronic fatigue no matter how much sleep i get, but it's not debilitating. if i get a low amount of sleep, it does become debilitating. I hope to have it permanently solved through surgery in the next few years.

I think the answer is probably don't bring it up, but i'm wondering if that clarifying information changes anything.

Yeah while I sympathize, I do not think that the people you work for are gonna make sure that you get a full night’s sleep because you have sleep apnea. Sleeping less than 6-7 hours in a night is shitty for everyone and while it may be shittier for you, I would not expect much if any sympathy. I would try to pick a firm/practice that has more predictable hours if this is a serious concern for you because if you went to like a big NYC corporate practice and tried to use that sort excuse it would not work out super well for you

Having a medical condition isn’t an excuse, and suffering chronic fatigue from a medical condition isn’t the same as “I get tired too if I don’t get enough sleep” (you may get tired but you recover after a good night’s sleep, chronic fatigue is more incapacitating and someone may not be able to function at all and may need days or weeks of recovery after lack of sleep).

I’m not saying firms wouldn’t be shitty about it, it just seemed that your response is minimizing the issue. This sounds like a legit disability covered by the ADA, which makes a firm’s response a little more complicated than “well, I’d like to sleep more too.” The question is more how law firms will react to invoking ADA protections, not to asking specifically to get longer nights of sleep. You may well be right that it won’t go well for the OP, I just still don’t think you get why this is a disability.

[Anonymous User]

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