From 1 Nishith Desai Associates is extending its unlimited leave policy to all lawyers come 1 January 2021. This is an expansion of the flexible leave / unlimited holiday model the firm had trialled since 2017 for all lawyers who had worked at the firm for longer than 1,000 days.
“From day one, a member of the firm is at liberty to manage his or her time off, without any approval formalities. It means its members are free to take whatever amount of vacation or leave as they deem appropriate,” NDA now announced in a press release.
Managing partner Nishith Desai said in the release: “We believe our firm members are adults, responsible and accountable for their actions. Over the last three years, our people have shown relentless responsibility, work excellence and client centricity, despite availing of the freedom to balance their lives, health and well-being. Their passion for their profession, work and clients has ensured a collaborative, supportive culture that supports individuals’ decisions on time off.”
NDA senior leader Gowree Gokhale added: “Our people have always been diligent and our experiment in the past has worked well and hence we have decided to scrap the leave policy for all members
“We trust our people. We believe, as responsible, trustworthy and competent professionals, each of them is considered able enough to chart their own course of action on their time away from work. They can organise their leave in a manner that best fits their personal and professional needs - and least unsettles their deliverables, clients and colleagues.”
Do you like Pina Coladas?
The move follows renewed popularity of the unlimited holiday policies in corporates.
In the 1990s, IBM had led the charge, which has also been more recently followed by more trendy tech companies such as Netflix, LinkedIn and Github.
But while they sound great on paper, such policies can have counter-intuitive effects, particularly in competitive workplace environments, which is widely documented, especially on HR blogs.
The New York Times, for instance, had reported in 2007 that a former IBM staffer said that there “was not one year in which she took all her allotted time off”.
“It wasn’t seven days a week, but people ended up putting in longer hours because of all the flexibility, without really thinking about it,” said the staffer. “Although you had this wonderful freedom to take days when you want, you really couldn’t. IBM tends to be a group of workaholics.”
That does not sound different to the environment at most high-powered Indian corporate law firms.
We asked Gokhale about the potential for adverse effects of such a policy (how it could lead to staff taking fewer holidays since they might be worried about perception issues or to compete with colleagues) she said: “In our firm, I do not believe anyone has apprehension on these points.”
“We see overall annual performance as against commitments made,” Gokhale added, about how the internal appraisal process works. “I don’t need to keep account of leaves of anyone. We don’t even ask [about the number of days taken off].”
Instead, “total performance” was what mattered, such as client work, innovation, writings, thought leadership initiatives, and so on (as we have documented in more detail recently when the firm hiked its pay).
The messaging has also been sounding the right notes on that front.
In the press release, Nishith Desai wrote: “We believe, if a professional is passionately in pursuit of a ‘calling’ and a life’s purpose, then extraordinary commitment, excellence and reliability is implicit. Where then lies the need to direct, stipulate, and even less, police those very people who are now self-driving to their highest potential?
“As it is, in a profession that is ready round the clock to mitigate complex problems of our clients, there is little correlation between the leave policy, and how the professional avails it. Invariably, he or she does what is needed and in the client’s best interests. Now, if [our talent] take leave, they will consider the purpose of it, and use it wisely. Even if it is for an entirely personal goal, it will still be grist to the mill of self-development, well-being or fulfillment. When there is no compulsion or boundary, it will bring back to work a rejuvenated, committed and inspired person.”
How do you feel about unlimited holidays at your firm (or NDA)? Do you currently take your annual allowance or do you have to be forced to? Or do you run out of your holidays far too quickly every year. And do you feel like you could / would take more or fewer holidays with such a policy? Answers in the comments, please.
Comments
Basically, what I am saying that it will need a complex, documented and enforced framework to make real leaves available to law firm lawyers. These cute 'unlimited leave policies' is nothing more than a PR gimmick.
P.S. - Nothing against NDA. This applies to all law firms with cute HR policies with 15-30 days' leave, 10 - 6 working hours, etc.
PS - Do NDA people have to give up their bar registration given they are hired as employees and not on retainer basis? Really need this clarification.
They've had wfh policies (even before the pandemic) where seniors were cool with juniors being at home and working if it didn't hamper work genenuinely (genuinely to emphasize we're speaking about work, and not egos and idiosyncrasies). So in that sense - this works for NDA.
Read para 77 of this judgement
[quote]77. I am unable to accept the contention of the learned senior counsel for the defendants that Rule 49 of Section VII of the Bar Council of India Rules which proscribes an advocate from being a full time salaried employee of any person, Government, Firm, corporation or concern implies no advocate can work for any other advocate as an employee to be governed by the principles of contract of service. The object of this Rule is to make distinction where an advocate instead of practicing professional law, decides to work for an organization or a person on a full time salary basis. It would have no application to the principle of an advocate being associated with any other advocate. Yet simultaneously it cannot be said that if this is the position there can be no contract of service in a relationship between two advocates. I consider it appropriate to emphasise that in such a relationship between advocates possibly even a greater trust and confidence element is involved than between two business people. This is so since the advocate is not really working for himself but for his client and is rendering services for remuneration. The essential ingredients of a contract of service thus cannot be breached in such a relationship which has been succinctly set out in Robb v. Green case (Supra). Thus it is an implied term of an arrangement between the advocates that the information received would not be used to the detriment of the client or the advocate carrying on practice. [/quote]
2. Are the proposed new labour codes going thave any effect on lawyers who are employed at NDA? Like overtime pay, etc.?
Genuine questions - will help others in th industry get a fair sense.
No, Kian, it hasn't. Read their wording carefully, there's far less spoken about taking leaves to relax and unwind and more about how attorneys are adults who know they're being assessed on deliverables. It simply means that as long as your work is done, you can take leaves and what law firm doesn't have constant work? Unlimited leave policies are always bogus and mean absolutely nothing.
If NDA or any of the other handful of firms with this nonsense policy really want to bring about change, why not introduce a mandatory leave policy? ERP systems give colourful breakdowns of time spent every year, why not simply flag attorneys who have taken less than 2 weeks a year off and pull up their reporting partners?
I think you just nailed it. Someone needs to throw this on the face of the management trying to come up with innovative but useless ideas regarding leaves.
(A diligent, conscientious employee will be "on leave" only on national holidays like Republic Day and Independence Day and do with 4 hours of sleep everyday, indulging in 5 hours only when "really too tired".)
We are also expected to be available 24*7 like doctors. If you don't answer a call at 12 am for an apparent emergency you are named and shamed in a firm wide email sent to everyone.
I feel the reason for this could be the mindset of people who've run the show at these sweat shops thus far- glorification of lack of life outside of work (which in turn could be motivated by the institutionalized colonial slave thought process, representative of the times these people were born in). With mental health increasingly coming to focus, hopefully a change of mindset will also be witnessed across these firms. A realization that one has many identities (including that of a son/ daughter, father/ mother, grandchild, husband/ wife, brother/ sister, and most importantly, a human) other than a lawyer, all of which at least deserves some attention, could come a long way.
Its a plague ! :(
It all comes down to which partner you work for. If you have a good partner, then you can take advantage of this. If you don't, whether you have 18 leaves a year, or unlimited leaves, you'll end up getting 0.
For example, believe that the capital market team in Indus believes associates are allowed to make reasonable use of their leave policy and take sabbaticals etc
(1) NMD's autocratic style and not creating a true partnership. Favouritism being core of the work culture.
(2) Recent breach of client confidentiality which has been like an uppercut when his guard was down and he will not be able to get back on his feet even after the standing count. He has compounded the crisis by his thoughtless attempt to hide this leak instead of taking it head on.
These gimmicks aint gonna save the day and more hands will abandon the sinking ship.
Everyone was really nice to me and the environment was very collegiate.
But, there is something rotten in the firm. On the day of my joining, [...] was crying, not just sad, she was actually crying.
There was this another associate, I don't want to share details about her as I don't know if she is still working there. The associate was really nice to me, and I had kept in touch with her even after a few months of internship and she was still working there. She mentioned only once that no matter how much effort she put in, she was always chastised for her work. I saw her sobbing during lunchtime in a corner many times. I am sure many others did too. At that time, I thought maybe she is just incompetent because folks were nice to me but now I think why would the firm rather not just fire her. She came from a family of limited means and clearly needed the job and if I could see that, these guys saw it too.
I feel ashamed, that I never really did anything for her I was there. Not even dared to really prod what was going on despite the kindness shown to me. I guess I am no better than most other folks too. I was just another law student trying to land a job. I know this is no excuse but it is what it is. I still feel terrible about it and don't think this will ever go away.
At NDA - If you were in the right place and at the right time, you could end up taking any number of holidays even before this policy existed. For example, in one particular year, a reasonably high performer got the better part of 6 weeks off (with pay) - and with no significant impact on my bonus (this person was in the top percentile of bonus payout). So this could theoretically happen in NDA.
Compare this to the Big Firm culture - where there is no chance in hell that anyone could ever get that time kind of time off... regardless of even seniority (to a large extent) - at least not without there having been a signifciant medical / personal emergency. As a general rule of thumb, Big Firm culture is heavily dependant on squeezing the last remaining ounce of effort out of you.
That's not to say that NDA didn't throw you under the bus either, there were months where I would get 20 hours of sleep (in total) over an entire week, work all weekends, and generally survive under immense pressure. But if have the ability, you can get some time off in specific ways that is way more difficult at the Big Firm.
Having said that, 99% of NDA's problem is that you don't get paid. You don't get paid on time. You don't get paid commensurate to the effort you put in. You just don't get paid. The big man is pocketing most of the money and making you attend pointless management training sessions and thought leadership programs - all of which at the end of the day eat into your mental peace and well being. Even now, NDA hasn't paid out full bonus pay for [b]calendar year 2019[/b]! Can you imagine any other "top" firm doing this and getting away with it.
So yes, they can sell all this PR mumbo jumbo all they want, but till you don't pay your employs on time and fairly, who the fuck cares how many leaves you say you are going to give.
The only solace is that, at least at NDA you will never get manipulated, gaslighted, shouted at and / or mentally tortured the way they do at Big Law.
I suppose the take away is grass is greener on the other side, so you choose what is important to you and live life accordingly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/pn5kji/beware_of_the_unlimited_vacation_policy/