Legal work, like most other things in life, comes in cycles. There are periods of time when lawyers are generally busy and there are also periods when lawyers are slow due to holidays or other events. Legal professionals are currently in the slowest period of the year for many lawyers, since numerous attorneys take vacations and are away from their jobs around the holidays. Many people within the legal profession accommodate this slowdown in work, which is greatly appreciated. However, some lawyers do not get the memo that they should schedule nonessential matters for after the holidays, and people should usually ensure no one needs to work harder than necessary around this time of year.
Thankfully, many courts do get the memo about not scheduling too many matters around the holidays. For instance, the courts in a jurisdiction in which I practice will not be holding a motion day near the end of the year, presumably to give court staff and attorneys a break over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. In addition, it is a well-known fact in some jurisdictions in which I practice that courts usually do not send out new cases for trials around the holidays. This is likely because they know that the holidays will interrupt the flow of a trial, but also so that they do not need to burden court staff, lawyers, and perhaps most importantly, jurors, with another activity around the holidays.
Many lawyers also typically get the memo that nonessential matters should be adjourned until after the holidays. For instance, looking at my calendar, I do not have any depositions scheduled for the month of December. This is deliberate, since unless there is a court-imposed deadline that needs to be satisfied, lawyers can usually wait to take depositions for five or six weeks without having issues. In addition, most of my deadlines to respond to papers or for my adversaries to respond to papers I filed have been stipulated out until the new year. This helps ensure that no one needs to work harder than they absolutely have to around the holidays.
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Most law firms also honor the fact that people should be no busier than necessary around the holidays. At a few law firms at which I worked, it was not uncommon for lawyers to take weeks off in the month of December so that they can rest and recharge their batteries. If someone tried to take this amount of time off during any other point of the year, there would likely be problems, but over the holidays, this type of break is typical.
Moreover, many law firms close offices early the day before major holidays like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. This is a smart move because attorneys and staff will likely not be as productive as usual around these times so it is reasonable for them to take time off.
However, there are some people within the legal profession who do not get the memo about scheduling nonessential matters around the holidays. For instance, I once had an adversary who insisted that the only time his client could appear for a deposition was on Christmas Eve. My adversary said that the deposition likely would not go all day so there should be no issue holding the deposition right before a holiday. Of course, counsel for all of the other parties were not happy. They did not want to be limited by the fact that people needed to leave for Christmas Eve at some point, and the lawyers did not want to work any harder than usual during this season. Luckily, we were able to schedule the deposition shortly after New Year’s Eve so that the holiday season was not impacted by this deposition.
I have also had adversaries file motions and other documents right before holidays to the chagrin of all of the other attorneys involved in a matter. For instance, one time I was ready to go out on New Year’s Eve when I noticed that one of my adversaries had filed something electronically in one of my cases. I had no idea why my adversary was seemingly at his desk at 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and I kind of felt bad for him. I also was a little bit angry, because now I would be thinking about this case and my response to his filing when I should be focusing on having a good time. Even if you are not doing anything around a holiday, you should still have the courtesy to minimize the amount of work other lawyers need to complete during this period.
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All told, the legal profession is mostly good about scheduling nonessential matters for after the holidays so everyone can enjoy the holiday season to the fullest. However, some people still need to get the memo about not scheduling nonessential matters around the holidays.
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 [email protected].