Sabbaticals and the Practice of Law: Can a law firm provide sabbatical opportunities to all its staff?
I am about to find out.
You would have to be living under a rock to not know that I have had a difficult time managing my mental health since about late 2020. The Coles Notes version is this: I burned out completely in January 2021, took time off, returned to work and immediately started to spiral again, started my own firm, and, since then, continue to manage ups and downs.
The worst part of the down days is not being able to be available to the associate lawyers for mentorship and guidance. Knowing that I was struggling, my senior associate Andrew Paterson floated an idea by me many months ago. That idea was taking a sabbatical from practice. He thought I would benefit from it and also offered to take on additional responsibility at the firm to make it possible. He also told me about how in the Military (where we spent his first career), it is fairly common for people to take sabbaticals. Once he mentioned it, I couldn’t get it out of my head.
The concept of taking a sabbatical from the practice of law is not new, although talking about it openly may well be. I know of other firms who offer equity partners the ability to take sabbaticals in certain circumstances. I am beginning to wonder if offering career breaks more broadly may assist with the legal professions mental health crisis and help curb the significant turnover that many law firms are facing (according to Pirical data, some firms have 20-30% turnover at the associate level).
Forbes published an article earlier this year that analyzed the increase trend of individuals taking a sabbatical from their career (often unpaid) for personal growth, pursuing hobbies, travel or even further education. The article states, in part:
[A] sabbatical can be greatly beneficial for mental health. The modern work environment, often characterized by long hours and high stress, can take a toll on one’s mental well-being. A sabbatical allows individuals to decompress, relax, and rejuvenate. This mental break can help in reducing burnout, anxiety, and stress, leading to a healthier, happier lifestyle. Upon return, employees often find themselves more focused, energized, and productive, which is advantageous not just for them but for their employers as well.
The article also points to potential downsides for taking a sabbatical. The largest of which is financial - as many people cannot afford to take a significant unpaid leave. Another reason people are reluctant to take a sabbatical, even if the workplace allows it, is a certain level of stigma may attach to it. The article in Forbes states:
While many employers are becoming more open to the idea of sabbaticals, there’s still a risk that taking one could be viewed negatively, as a lack of commitment or a break in one’s career progression. This perception can potentially hinder future career opportunities or advancement within the current organization.
I have no doubt that this would be the case in some law firm environments but it shouldn’t be. We work very long hours. We deal with very stressful situations for our clients. We work in an adversarial system. Some clients and colleagues expect us to be on the clock 24/7. Most of us are addicted to our work phones. Lawyers have unacceptably high levels of depression, anxiety and substance abuse. We all need a break.
A real break.
Sabbaticals in Law Firms Generally
Some professional associations and leaders in the profession are beginning to encourage sabbaticals. The recent New York State Bar Association’s “Report and Recommendations of the NYSBA Task Force on Attorney Well-being” lists “encouraging sabbaticals” as one of its nine recommendations for developing a law firm roadmap for well-being best practices (at pg. 105).
Bob Tarantino wrote an article titled “Keeping them by sending them away: Sabbaticals and Lawyer Retention” way back in October of 2009! In it, he references a University study which concluded that “many corporations consider the benefits of sabbaticals so self-evident that they forego the expense of documenting them.” He also wrote about how sabbaticals, at least at that point in time, had long been imbedded as an option in many large US law firms since at least the 1960s and 1970s. He hypothesized that perhaps the relatively recent emergence of very large law firms in Canada “means that Canadian firms don’t have decades of experience during which sabbatical policies have been given time to develop and gain popularity.” I do not believe that the idea has caught on to any great extent since 2009 and that Canadian law firms may well be behind in this area.
In fact, the American Bar Association published a 140 page manual in 2006 (!) titled “Rest Assured: The Sabbatical Solution for Lawyers”. I have not had time to read the manual yet, but it’s description states that “In the war for human capital, law firms of all sizes find that sabbaticals are a workable, worthwhile attorney retention tool.” The work includes various sample sabbatical policies (which I will be reviewing carefully) and addresses common management concerns, client reactions and explains the logic and logistics of making time for lawyer sabbaticals.
Why did I feel I needed to take a sabbatical now?
I continue to have health challenges related to past traumas that I have not been able to heal from while deeply imbedded not only in my own legal practice, but in the profession as a whole. That, combined with several family deaths of over the last few months, has led me to feel like now is the time to focus on myself.
In addition to healing, I would like to spend time deep thinking about the future of the firm and my career. Long-time followers will know that I started the firm as a means to escape from an unhealthy situation. The firm’s immediate purpose was to allow me to get healthier while also continuing to serve my clients. Now that the firm has largely met that purpose, I feel stuck. Will the firm grow significantly? Will we continue to stay intentionally small? Does it make sense to take the practice to another firm with similar values or continue building? Do I even want to be on the front lines serving clients or do I prefer to have more of a mentorship/marketing/ training/managing role? What does the rest of the team want? We will be doing a lot of thinking about these issues this summer - associates and staff included.
In addition, although my health has generally been much better since starting my own firm, I have had recent set backs. My health was badly triggered recently due to news of people dying from overwork in professional service industries in the US and the UK in recent months as well as meeting a lawyer on an airplane who experienced horrible treatment in their workplace related to their mental health. Despite setting up a healthy work environment, recent events have triggered past trauma. It is going to take a lot of time, work and disconnecting from the profession (including cutting down on posts here) to get back to a good baseline.
I also hope to use the time to work on some law-adjacent projects. The most significant of which are some on-demand training courses for the sport sector. I may also start another book project. Mostly, however, I will be gardening and watching birds.
I would like anyone at our firm to be able to take a sabbatical. I am not sure yet how it will work but am open to ideas. For my sabbatical, I am reducing the amount of my compensation to make up for the firm’s reduced profitability while I am away. For it to work more broadly in our very small firm, we will need to get creative for it to work financially. But I think it is doable.
How did you do it?
I will write more about this when I return in October. However, organizing the sabbatical was much easier than I anticipated. We provided clients with notice that I would be on leave commencing June 10 and returning October 15. I assumed I would lose a couple clients by doing this. I did not lose any. I think part of the clients’ comfort with me being away was the extent to which I make sure my associates know and interact with the firms clients. I also, obviously, have a great deal of trust and faith in the abilities of my team to carry on without me for a few months. I simply wrapped up what I could, transferred other matters, and scheduled others around my return in the fall. I also lined up some trusted senior counsel in the event that the team needs guidance while I am away from someone with more grey hair than Andrew.
I was somewhat surprised by how supportive the firms’ clients have been with the decision. Perhaps they recognize that losing a lawyer for four months is a whole lot better than potentially losing them forever. I think this may be the key to making sabbaticals work in the industry. Four months is not a lot of time in the life of a litigation file. That type of break is less disruptive than when lawyers quit, a replacement needs to be found and files are transferred. Perhaps sabbaticals will make both lawyers and clients happier? Time will tell.
Have a great summer everyone.
Erin Durant