Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Tells Associates They Have To Take Vacation Time To Attend Firm Event

And here you thought taking a vacation meant getting away from your Biglaw firm.

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Anyone who has spent any time in Biglaw is familiar with the concept of firm-wide events. There’s the requisite bonding/networking/making a good impression on newbies and you’re supposed to leave the event feeling some degree of warm fuzzies for the place where you spend the overwhelming majority of your waking hours. What you aren’t supposed to feel is that you’ve been hoodwinked into forking over a chunk of your valuable vacation time.

Unfortunately for the associates at Quinn Emanuel, the warm fuzzies were hard to come by this year.

Above the Law has been tipped off by firm insiders about a massive snafu following the firm’s annual hike. According to our tipsters, in previous years the firm has allowed associates that attend the event to bill the time to a non-billable client number. When associates attempted to repeat the practice this year however, they were told that time should, instead, be charged to their vacation time. Yup, that’s right, after the fact they were told attending a firm event was really their vacation because attendance wasn’t mandatory.

Associates at Quinn were just as shocked as you are. And, to be clear, vacation time at Quinn is not unlimited, so this is a far cry from a “no harm, no foul” situation.

This policy, in a word, stinks. We know, as a profession, that the legal world has issues with mental health and wellness. The right response for a firm to the stresses of Biglaw life is not to take away the limited time attorneys have to unwind and (hopefully) unplug.

We reached out to the firm and they defended the policy since it subsidizes the travel costs associated with the trip:

The firm sponsors an annual hike. It’s always voluntary, but always very popular. In recent years, the hike has been in Switzerland, Japan, Iceland and Italy. Many associates and partners sign up. The firm heavily subsidizes the cost for associates. This year the hike took place in Interlaken, Switzerland. We hiked the “Faulhornweg” trail through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. The final night of the trip, there was a celebratory group dinner held at the Victoria Jungfrau Les Colonnades & Atrium. Over 250 attorneys attended the hike, which is the biggest turnout the firm has seen. It’s an opportunity to travel, see some of the most beautiful settings in the world, and enjoy time outside the office with one’s colleagues. It is properly treated as vacation time though some associates have recorded it as recruiting time because some summer associates also attend.

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While international travel might be a nice perk for associates, it isn’t the same as an actual vacation. However nice the firm trip may be, it is still part of the job. Sharing a drink with your boss does not have the same relaxing properties as not responding to your boss’ emails because you’re lying on a beach somewhere. And changing the policy about how the time gets billed after the associates get home? Well, that just really stinks.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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