Change In Vacation Policy Causes Consternation At Biglaw Firm

'Unlimited' isn't always a good thing.

On paper, there isn’t anything *wrong* with what’s going on at Shearman & Sterling. The firm recently announced they were moving away from a specific number of vacation days for associates (4 weeks) and transitioning to an unlimited number of vacation days. Well, to be precise, “as much paid vacation time as you deem consistent with your seniority while considering the firm’s needs and client demands.” That just hits slightly different, don’t it?

In the email announcing the policy change, Shearman leadership points to the “greater flexibility” the new vacation rules allow and touts that the “health and wellbeing of our people is our top priority.” They also encourage taking “at least one of your vacations each year for a meaningful period of time in duration as short vacations do not always provide enough time to fully recharge.” But despite this language, not everyone is feeling it.

Just take a look at some of the salty tipsters reacting to the new policy:

They claim it is for the well-being of the lawyers, but it is obviously intended to get us to work more and take fewer vacations.  Please note that the email says we are encourages to take at least one week-long vacation.  But every associate I know was already taking multiple week-long vacations each year—this is clearly the firm hinting to us that more than one long vacation is no longer encouraged.  This shit is ridiculous and law students should know about this sort of thing when choosing a firm.  Hopefully they won’t pick this one.

This isn’t the first time (or second or even third) Above the Law has written about the move to unlimited vacation days in Biglaw — and the backlash to the move. The industry is based on billable hours, so there will always be a push and pull when there’s a change to that. And there’s historically been a good deal of skepticism across the entire industry about “unlimited” vacation when most aren’t in a position to take the previously offered four weeks — now they just won’t get an extra payout for unused days off.

If Shearman & Sterling is serious that the change is meant for “flexibility” and for associates’ “well-being” they have to up the messaging. Because right now, there’s a lot of side eye amongst the rank and file associates.

Read the full email from the firm on the next page.

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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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