Small Law Firms

More Lawyers Should Observe A Holiday Truce

Although there is no rule or procedure that requires lawyers to observe a kind of holiday truce, such an act is likely to preserve goodwill with adversaries.

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Truce! Truce!

Many lawyers, like professionals of other fields, slow the pace of their work during the holiday season. Indeed, many attorneys take vacations during the last few weeks of the year, and courts often schedule fewer appearances during this period so everyone can take time off and not worry about matters around the holidays. Nevertheless, some lawyers serve demands, file motions, and make other requests that might require their adversaries to spend time responding to such matters around the holidays. Of course, some issues cannot wait, and emergent matters need to be dealt with over the holidays even if this inconveniences people. However, lawyers should be more empathetic to their adversaries and observe a holiday truce by adjourning matters until after the start of the new year whenever they can.

From my personal experience, most lawyers do observe a holiday truce. It is very common to see a slowdown in the pace of litigation and transactional matters around the holidays, and this allows people to spend more time with their families and not devote brain space to work matters. In addition, many attorneys agree to adjournments as a matter of course if it is not critical to address the issues immediately.

In the past, I have tried to make sure that I did not file any demand, motion, or other request that needed to be responded to by the end of the year. I also try not to file motions too close to the end of the year for practical reasons, since courts sometimes respond more slowly during this time. Even if I absolutely need to file a motion around the last few weeks of a year, I try to use a later return date so that opposition or reply papers do not need to be filed until after the holidays.

However, not all attorneys are considerate about their adversaries’ time around the holidays. Indeed, it is common to see litigants file noncritical motions around the holidays that have submission deadlines around Christmas and New Year’s Day. Sometimes, this can backfire on the party that filed the motion.

One time, an adversary of mine filed a completely unnecessary discovery motion towards the end of the year. My opposition was due right around Christmas, which did not phase me much because I do not celebrate that holiday. However, their reply was due right around New Year’s Day. I timely filed the opposition without asking for an adjournment, and then the adversary asked for more time to file reply papers. I related that the adversary chose to file the motion around the holidays, and I had timely filed the opposition papers without an adjournment. Eventually, I agreed to an adjournment as a matter of courtesy, but another litigant might have forced that attorney to write and file reply papers around New Year’s Day since the adversary had chosen to file his motion at the end of the year.

Although there is no rule or procedure that requires lawyers to observe a kind of holiday truce, such an act is likely to preserve goodwill with adversaries. Most lawyers try to avoid unnecessary work around the holidays so they have the most time to spend with families and friends. Adversaries will be justifiably upset if someone forces them to work around the holidays when the matter could have just as easily been left for the new year.

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Obviously, goodwill and courtesy toward adversaries are extremely important to resolving matters and obtaining favorable outcomes for clients. This is especially true in the present environment. As many attorneys understand from firsthand experience, judicial intervention is harder to obtain right now because of COVID-19, and jury trials have been suspended in many jurisdictions. As a result, negotiating resolutions to matters between counsel is becoming increasingly more important for most legal issues.

Observing a holiday truce is also just the right thing to do. The COVID-19 pandemic has connected lawyers with their adversaries like never before. In order to keep legal work moving forward, lawyers have had to exchange cell phone numbers, conduct virtual meetings from people’s living rooms, and share a number of common negative consequences. It seems like many more lawyers are empathetic to their adversaries now than they were before COVID-19, and hopefully this attitude in the profession will continue long after the pandemic subsides. Giving adversaries a break is the right thing to do, and if you were on the receiving end of a motion, demand, or other request around the holidays, you would probably hope an adversary would give you a break during the final few weeks of the year. Moreover, observing a holiday truce is also the right thing to do for the parties attorneys represent because clients may also have to perform work in order to respond to demands sent around the holidays, and this should not occur in noncritical matters.

Again, many lawyers understand that people should not make unnecessary work for their adversaries over the holidays. However, more attorneys should observe a holiday truce, which is not only the right thing to do, but can lead to better outcomes for lawyers and their clients.

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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