In-House Counsel, Travel / Vacation

Unplugging On Vacation? Only In Your Cyber Dreams

In some ways, in-house lawyers have it harder than their Biglaw colleagues when it comes to vacation.

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If you look at my wife’s Instagram, we just returned from a great vacation.

There was a beach, wonderful food, sunsets, and sightseeing. Absent from her posts, however were photos of me hunched over, squinting at my phone, and responding to e-mails by the ocean.

To my Biglaw colleagues screaming at their screens, I get it. I am at least in a position where I can take a vacation and leave the country, while you are locked in the proverbial billable-hour jail. But given the countless disappointed looks I received from my wife as I hopped on yet another conference call, not taking the vacation in the first place did not sound like an awful idea.

If you are one of the lucky Biglaw few who manages to sneak in a vacation here and there, sure, you probably still need to be available while you are away. But generally you can check out, knowing someone else in your firm can handle any pressing issue that may arise. Given the team of attorneys that may service a single account, you can trust a competent colleague is ready to jump in at a moment’s notice.

In the in-house world, with a considerably smaller pool of resources, trusting someone else will answer the call of duty when you are away is not as feasible. Even in a large organization such as the one I work in, our in-house resources are stretched pretty thin.

We generally have one attorney covering a pretty large portfolio, with little overlap between portfolios. Which means, if an issue arises in your portfolio while you are away, the rest of your colleagues will be able to provide very little immediate assistance.

Given this reality, I sadly felt as though I had little choice other than to let my cellphone tag along as the third wheel on my vacation. As it turns out, just because you are out for the week does not mean your non-legal colleagues will magically stop trying to negotiate legally dubious contracts or do many of the other activities that make us bang our heads in to the wall.

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Luckily, it is not all bad news if you are an in-house planning for your next vacation.

When done correctly, you may even be able to score a couple of points with the C-suite while you are away, but you must plan carefully. Over the years I have employed a few key tactics that help minimize the burden of being away for a week, while also maximizing my ability to score an extra point with my superiors.

First, always plan your vacation around a national holiday or recognized school break. In general, others in your office will do the same, which lessens the number of people left in the office who may get into trouble.

Second, travel as many time zones away from your office as possible. In an ideal world, you are awake while they are sleeping, limiting the number of daytime interruptions. This also provides the added benefit of allowing you to wake up to a full day’s worth of office email waiting for you in bulk. Which means, prior to breakfast in your time zone, you can be caught up with the day’s events.

Finally, take the chance to respond to even the most mundane of emails with a quick reminder you are in country X for the week and will dive into the issue first thing when you return. This is admittedly tantamount to little more than a custom out-of-office reply, but those in your company will remember the extra effort.

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Let them imagine you responding to their email while in the middle of your Mount Kilimanjaro climb; they don’t need to know you hit send while you were still laying in bed.

The advent of the international data plan is certainly both a blessing and a curse. But if used appropriately on your next vacation, it just may allow you to mitigate potential issues you have to deal with upon your return, and may let you score a couple of points along the way.

Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.

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