Biglaw

Cravath Sows Seeds Of Discontent With New Vacation Policy

Cravath spoils the dream of a post-corona vacation.

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The latest spike in coronavirus cases is upon us, casting doubt on holiday travel plans around the country. That is, of course, deeply worrying, but the reality of it has been tempered by some recent good COVID news. I’m talking about the latest from Pfizer who announced their vaccine has a 90 percent efficacy rate and could be approved before the end of this forsaken year.

Experts are cautioning that even with a vaccine it’ll be a while until we “get back to normal.” But still, between the soon-to-be approved vaccine and a president-elect that believes in science, normal — finally — seems attainable. Part of that normalcy that people are craving is travel and good old-fashioned vacations. Pretty much all of those got cancelled in 2020, but maybe — just maybe — in 2021 we can all dust off our passports, or hit the open road or do whatever it is you like to get away from the house you’ve spent quarantine hiding out in.

Unfortunately, Cravath just made the dream of a long, overdue vacation that much more difficult.

The Biglaw firm recently announced some changes to their vacation and sick time policy. Associates still get four weeks of vacation time, but the amount of carryover days allowed from one year to the next has been cut in half, from 10 down to 5. Given the dearth of vacation opportunities in 2020, lots of folks were probably planning on banking those days. Plus they’ve changed how those days are accounted for — now any carryover days will be counted as being used last, when they’d previously been the first days associates used.

As you might imagine, according to tipsters, people at the firm are pissed off at the changes:

To do this during a pandemic when people can’t actually go on vacation has a lot of people pissed off. To add insult to injury they also changed the policy to use those days last instead of first so it makes it harder to carry over days two years in a row. There’s no reason that should be the case and they’ve given zero rationale for it.

Now, it’s true that Biglaw associates often leave vacation days on the table (if a firm even has a formal limit) given the “billable hours above all else” mentality the permeates the industry. And, yes, four weeks is a nice chunk of vacation time even if there’s no ability to bank vacation days. So, in practice, very little may actually be different for associates. But a change to the vacation policy now, when vacations are the dream of most of the country, just feels like kicking somewhen when they’re down.

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You can read Cravath’s new vacation policy on the next page.

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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