Risk and Practice Management
Taking Vacation
Time away from the office is vital to your well being. Going years without a regular vacation is a recipe for disaster, both personally and professionally. It almost always results in burnout and mistakes. Start your vacation planning now. Consider the following when planning vacations:
- Commit to regular breaks from the office and schedule those breaks into your calendar.
- Coordinate the vacations of your support staff so that you do not have employees critical to your operation absent from the office at the same time.
- When deciding to accept a new client or a new matter, consider your vacation schedule, as well as your current caseload and your other professional and personal commitments. If you do not have a competent partner or associate who can handle a matter during your planned absence, don't accept the matter. Refer it to another lawyer.
- Make sure that your clients and the opposing lawyers are aware of your vacation dates. Before leaving on vacation prepare a detailed memo on the status of your active files. Review it with those persons who will be responsible for your files during your absence.
- If you are a sole practitioner, arrange with a competent colleague to be the “go to person” on your files if emergencies arise. Initially try this for even a few days, to see how the arrangement works. If it works, your next break can be for a longer period.
- Do not schedule court appearances or discoveries for the days immediately following your scheduled return to work.
- When leaving for vacation set up your out of office assistant on your e-mail, directing anyone who requires a response during your absence to the person who is handling your files. Leave a similar message on your voicemail.
- If you feel you must work while on vacation, and you bring along a laptop, cell phone or Blackberry, limit the amount of time you spend working. Rather than constantly checking for messages, consider dealing with e-mails and phone messages at a particular time each day.
- If you are working while on vacation, continue to document advice given and instructions received, and make sure this documentation is saved to the file.
- Continue to properly track and record your time. If not, you are working for free.
- When your regular assistant is absent from the office be particularly vigilant of work done by his or her replacement.