Since I have so clearly been behind in my posting these last few weeks, I clearly need a break from the work. Good thing I put in for my secured leave!

            Before I went on my secured leave, I was running around doing all the types of errands that we do prior to getting out of town for vacation. One of my stops was with my aesthetician. As I was getting my service done, I told them about my plans for secured leave and how I was actually going out of town to try and enjoy my time away from work. I spoke about how important it was for me to change the scenery when I went on vacation as doing that allowed me to completely remove myself and my thoughts from the work. The physical space between my work life and my rest away life was integral to me making the best of my secured leave. When I am on secured leave, I need time to think. As I said this last sentiment, they verbally said the same thing; time to think. It was so affirming that I wasn’t the only person around me who thought the same. Intellectually, I know others in the world must have the same sentiment solely based on the law of averages. But, when we choose to boldly express those sentiments to one another in our daily lives, I find it reaffirming and special. It was like they read my mind.

            Don’t our legal minds sometimes need, in addition to purposeful rest, a change of scenery just to think? To think about how we are doing? To think about how our practices are? To think about the pace of our work? To think about how we are serving our clients? To think about those clients for whom it is best to say goodbye? To think about preserving and nurturing our collegial legal relationships? To just let our legal minds breathe in and out fully? There is something to be said about giving oneself the ROOM to think. People often don’t think about physical space in relation to thinking. Since it is such an insular activity. But I think there is mentally and physiologically something to be said about giving oneself the physical space to think. We lawyers, for whom thought, consideration and analysis is integral to the performance of our work, this is integral to maintaining those skills.

            But it actually takes discipline and work to pry ourselves away from the work. If you are regular readers of this blog, you have seen previous posts dealing with some tried and true rules for going on secured leave and stepping away from your desk (Guard Your Leave With Your Life…Seriously, posted April 22, 2022). But even though I have penned some tried and true rules to separating oneself from the work during their leave, I found myself having to refer BACK to these same rules I wrote! This is clearly a working list as I need to add another…email.

            Our email has become the yoke by which we are constrained. I was watching a documentary on our modern-day addiction to social media and one of the people interviewed revealed their “addiction” to their Outlook account. I didn’t’ understand what they meant. Was that a maladaptive thing? Is it dysfunctional to be drawn to checking one’s email? It’s interesting because a fascinating dichotomy to the idea of email addiction for us lawyers is that one of the top reasons attorneys are complained upon to the Bar is due to their non-responsiveness; the modern equivalent of such is not returning one’s emails in a timely fashion, no? But, when we are on secured leave, we need to be on secured leave. We shouldn’t let anything short of an emergency disrupt our secured leave. One of the things I have told my partner and staff are what are true emergencies that warrant the interruption of an attorney’s private time by a client: Are you getting arrested? = Emergency. Are you getting arrested by the Federal Authorities? = Emergency. Are you going to the hospital due to grievous injury? = Emergency. Is your child being abducted ( I mean truly abducted NOT that your ex is an hour late) = Emergency. Everything else can damn well wait.

            For this secured leave, I have had to deliberately turn away from my email. It’s not fair to me or any other attorney on leave to still have to feel the obligation to check one’s email. Time away is time away and it is really important for us to draw that line. There is always this nagging feeling of wanting to respond immediately to somethings. But in reality, most things can absolutely wait. It is really important to distill in one’s mind what one would consider an emergency warranting interruption of one’s leave versus all other interruptions. I think it is important for us to all be clear about that boundary so when one is ready to go on leave, it is clear to us what we will tolerate. I think changing one’s scenery helps us practice this discipline while on secured leave. When I go on secured leave now that I am in private practice, I make it a point to be physically away from home base so I can disconnect a lot easier. In the end, I think it makes me a better lawyer and advocate. Because isn’t that the point at the end of the day?