It's Time For All Vacations To Be Billable And Bonus Eligible

This is necessary for attorney mental health. Take action!

onApril 28, 2021 at 4:16 PMApril 28, 2021 at 3:10 PM

Imagine a world where you don’t have to worry about billing while on vacation.

Attorneys are spending much more time with a bunch of things at home. There’s not a corresponding decrease in professional responsibilities. That’s a mathematical formula for disaster. You can give people thousands of vacation hours a year. But if you don’t want to decrease billable hours, then nobody will take it.

— Jarrett Green, a wellness consultant and former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom attorney, commenting on the negative role that billable hour targets play on attorney mental health in the legal industry. As first reported here at Above the Law, some firms, like Orrick, are taking action on this front, and have added 40 billable, bonus-eligible vacation hours to attorneys’ schedules.

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From Pilot and Above The Law

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.