Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Offers Two Months Off For Associates Who Will Never Take Two Months Off

Oh, and it's unpaid? Sign me up!

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On paper, it sounds like a great perk.

Biglaw life is a pressure cooker and who doesn’t like a lengthy sabbatical of a vacation? So Magic Circle stalwart Clifford Chance upped its vacation time game by offering associates two whole months of unpaid leave if they want it. Yes, associates who can’t even find the time in their schedules to use three whole weeks of paid vacation can now apply to have two months off for free.

This is a pilot program available to Clifford Chance’s London attorneys, some European-based attorneys, and a select group of senior associates on its finance, capital markets and TMT teams with an eye toward rolling it out to all associates if the program is a success.

The logic behind a program like this is that attorneys need a vacation now and then, but can’t realistically detach as fully as recuperation might require if they try to work in a week off here and there, while a full two months of downtime would provide an attorney something to really plan around and, consequently, make that associate more likely to take some time off.

That may well be true, but it’s also unfortunate that we need to make people go without pay in order to realistically take a break. If the goal is creating an environment where attorneys feel more comfortable taking time off, there are other options — like forcing associates to take paid vacations and fostering a culture that respects that, or outright paying for people’s vacations.

Personally, I can’t imagine an attorney taking two months off and incurring the immediate pay cut and corresponding hours hit. In a world where law firms are getting sued for derailing the careers of female associates for having kids and tightening up maternity leave compensation, taking a couple months off doesn’t seem like a great move.

Frankly, any attorney who can find it in their career plans to take two months off for free is probably using that time for interviewing anyway.

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Clifford Chance offers lawyers two months unpaid holiday [Legal Cheek]

Earlier: ATL March Madness: Which Perk Do You Want From Your Firm?

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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