The firm announced several changes to its administrative policies and procedures in a recently leaked memo, including limiting meals and increasing the number of client hours that can affect vacation days, Above the Law reported Thursday.

“Based on past discussions with the Associate Experience Committee and feedback from associate focus groups, we have adopted a number of changes to certain administrative policies and procedures,” the firm said in the brief Oct. 2 memo.

Vacation days won’t count against a lawyer's total vacation allotment if they record four or more client hours on a planned vacation day, the memo said, a total higher than what Above the Law reports used to be a three hour limit.

The firm is also revising its meal policy for evening and weekend meals, saying it will increase the meal limit to $35, including tip and gratuity, regardless of meal limits imposed by clients. But according to an Above the Law tipster, there never used to be a hard limit even though the memo describes the limit as being increased.

Car services were another target of the memo, with the firm saying it has implemented a rate increase for car services and a voluntary gratuity for drivers in an effort to shorten wait times. Sullivan & Cromwell said it has also adopted guidelines to facilitate the use of Uber when it’s more convenient than its black car services, noting its reimbursement will include surge pricing up to 125 percent.

In response to client requirements and requests, the firm instructed its attorneys to submit daily time entries on the second Monday following the end of the week absent any holidays.

Sullivan & Cromwell said lawyers who miss the deadline two weeks in a row won't be eligible for direct deposit for the following two pay periods and instead must obtain their paychecks from their practice group or office managing partner.

On a different note, the firm also announced it will provide standing desks and headsets to anyone who requests them and said the fitness center at its 125 Broad Street location in New York will be open weekends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The memo concluded by saying it has identified ways to improve its travel department after conducting a satisfaction survey, including improving its services with American Express and reallocating its travel department staff to ensure better coverage.

Representatives for Sullivan & Cromwell didn’t respond Thursday to requests for comment.

— Editing by Ben Guilfoy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977716)

"I'm prestigious! I'm prestigious!" pranced the BIGLAW lawyer, oblivious to the fact that most people were simply in awe of his shitty life, not his prestige.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977838)

at my firm if you don't use them you lose them. sucks because can't ever take them all. fuck them all.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977869)

I have taken 6-8 weeks out of the office each the last two years and will this year too. Can't let yourself give a fuck. Never got a bad bonus, always get stellar reviews. I would kill myself if I lived in fear.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977876)

You must be in Europe, right?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977885)

If so, I know someone like that. Never officially on vacation, always "working remotely" (dumping work on juniors) from ski trips or bachelor weekends or birthday trips.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977905)

you post way too much on here to be this fucking ox, ace

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979405)

By and end of this year: 3 week wedding and honeymoon, 10 long weekends with Thursday travel, 1 week in Europe, 1 week skiing, 1 week beach.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979677)

I dont bill hourly, but I answer directly to a managing director. If I'm not here there is no one to do my work except the MD and you know what she's going to do when I dump 10 hours a day of shit on her head? She's going to wonder how the fuck dare I when there are 500,000 lawyers out there who would kill for my job and title and happily never take a day off. And she herself takes like zero time off.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977890)

Also, I am a very hardworking guy, but what pisses people off, and burns people out mentally, is the failure to give breaks and time off at the margin. No reason every lawyer can't get 2 weeks time off per year.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978088)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28980991)

Sent from my Iridium

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28977997)

Lol @ any biglaw firm actually respecting vacation/personal life

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978084)

Sent from my Iridium

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979753)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978032)

Partner: FUCK OFF!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978059)

Fucking LOL. I seriously would have quit over this because of treating us like fucking children. How I survived 4.5 years in BIGLAW is a mystery to me. It is as if I was a completely fucking different person then as I reflect back on it. A fucking horrible, horrible person.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978048)

At my firm you have to go grovel at the toad lawyer in charge to beg for the check

Also my firm is so shit this is also a metric in determining bonus

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978064)

Something like that would have immediately made me call a recruiter.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978097)

i am a patient and loyal guy, but a firm can go fuck itself if they're going to act like this.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978079)

Mort wants to get paid. That's about it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978161)

My firm had this rule for partners, and that is what a few of the partners did. It was pretty funny because you could tell none of them gave a shit and it was a bigger hassle for the managing partner than it was worth so the promptly stopped it.

Most firms have it so if you do not bill your time promptly it theoretically could hurt your bonus.

Also, the 4 hours a day is pretty good. The only thing that sucks is the $35 a day for dinner. The guideline we have is $50, but basically anything under $100 is paid without question. I mean who gives a shit, it is basically the difference between a 12.3 and a 12.4 of your time from the client's perspective.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978239)

I put the trip on my calendar 11 months in advance and made sure all the partners I worked with knew I'd be gone for that week.

3 days before I was leaving, a partner in a satellite office called me out of the blue, they had just lost a major case and they needed associates to brief a motion for reconsideration on a tight deadline.

I told him that I would jump right on it but I had a hard out because of this long preplanned trip. He said that was fine and any help I could give his "team" would be great.

Turns out there was no team, it was just me and when I sent him a draft the afternoon before I left, he pressed the panic button and said it needed major work and that I needed to do it.

I reminded him I was leaving and he asked if I could cancel. I explained why I couldn't and he said OK.

20 minutes later the MP of my office came in, shut the door and explained to me in no uncertain terms I had to cancel or delay the trip a few days until this guy was satisfied.

I managed to get the faggot a brief in 3 days and still get to Italy for my dad's party with a day to spare, but only was in the villa with my family for 4 days before the rental ended. I flew back home and plotted my revenge against the partner, but it was unnecessary because he died of a heart attack 4 months later.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978168)

But this is exactly what I mean when I say time off at the margin. I've had to cancel long weekend trips, and, while it sucks, something like what you've described above is unacceptable.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978180)

I do appreciate the 180 twist where the guy died.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978234)

ljl at that elementary school bullshit. at my in-house position at a tech company, they bend over backwards to make sure no one leaves because of how long it takes to build up institutional knowledge and develop internal relationships. companies compete for suitable legal talent, not the other way around.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978244)

The only reason this policy matters is if S&C allows you to bank all your time and roll it over every year because then you're talking about real money when people leave but I doubt they let people roll it all anyway so it doesn't matter.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978394)

This is why the "unlimited vacation" is such a scam. They are just stopping you from getting accrued days when you leave.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979345)

War is peace, right?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979413)

4*$400*5*50=$400,000

mighty white of them

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979457)

But descriptively, yeah...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28978767)

BUT DESCRIPTIVELY, he lisped!!!!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979619)

I have taken most of september off the last 3 years in a row for europe trips and also go home for a week or so either thxgiving or christmas and also do random one day vacations around long weekends

no i am not an outlier

how the fck do u guys live like this?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28979369)

During orientation, they'll give you an S&C shoulderbag and you'll wear it with the S&C logo facing outward so any other commuters in the know can see it and you'll just know that they're either impressed or envious. And that will make you happy and proud. And then you'll try to figure out the best way to ensure that you're sworn in as soon as possible after receiving your bar results because then you'll get the box full of business cards that say "Sullivan & Cromwell LLP" with your actual name underneath. You'll be giddy at the thought of casually passing one (mid-conversation) to some acquaintance from undergrad you've lost touch with.

You'll start working and you'll notice that there are an awful lot of "Farewell" emails and someone will tell you that the farewell emails can only contain 4 names at a time per firm policy because the partners decided sometime in 2004 that emails indicating 6 or 7 people were leaving the firm in a two week period might cause some unhelpful whispering. You'll talk to a midlevel associate who is super-psyched to work at S&C and you'll find out that he (not a lot of shes) lateralled from some firm that frankly you would never have considered working for (too TTT for you). When you get back to your office, this will trouble you a bit, you'll wonder if your own escutcheon is being blemished by the presence of this type of person (i.e., non-elite) at your S&C. But that feeling will pass as you'll find plenty of other like-minded first years who equally relish the prestige as you you head for a drink at Ulysses (shoulderbag logo facing outward).

Then you'll get staffed on your first big deal and you'll work late night after late night and then on the weekend and on to the next weekend and then on to the weekend when you had planned to go to a friend's wedding. And you won't go because the work has to get done and you have dues to pay (or so you'll be told). You'll get a little bit upset about this turn of events, but the arrival of those business cards will soften the blow.

You'll meet more and more laterals from firms that you would never work for (some you've never even heard of). You'll note in the farewell emails that some of the junior and midlevel associates leaving S&C are going to those very same firms. Survival of the fittest you'll say. But late at night, when the air conditioning clicks down from a barely perceptible hissing sound to complete silence, these things will bother you. But you'll tell yourself you're just tired and frustrated and anyway you have work to do.

You'll have lunch with Rodge and he'll tell you that business is good and that he's listening to associates' concerns about quality of life issues. You'll notice that some of the senior associates visibly roll their eyes at each other when this comes up, but you won't mind that much because, really, what other firm's managing partner regulalry has lunch with associates to hear their concerns (and takes notes!)

A few months will pass, a few marathon deals will happen, you'll have to re-schedule a vacation but you'll tell yourself that that is to be expected.

About a year in, a couple of your classmates will crack and start talking about how much the job sucks. They'll very likely have gone to Yale Law School. You'll joke that they couldn't hack it when they leave the firm for a clerkship, or an academic position or to go to a firm in another city.

Things will go on in this pattern and you'll notice the fact that you're working a lot harder than your friends who went to "peer" firms. At first you'll be proud of this and brag about it, but after a while you'll find yourself downplaying it. At least when you have the time to get out and socialize with your law school friends.

Something will happen: a partner will scream at you, a senior associate gunning for partner will blame you for her mistake, the partner will tell you that the trip to Europe your spouse meticulously planned just won't be able to happen (he'll be really sorry and will tell you a funny story about the exotic vacation he missed or cut short). Doesn't matter what, but you'll get really pissed and you'll start to take some of the 4 or 5 calls from headhunters that you'll receive every day at that point (vultures spell blood). They'll give you the names of firms that you laughed on in the days when you posted on the XOXO board, but you'll find yourself looking into them. The headhunter will encourage to just listen to their offer and you'll consider doing so. But you won't leave because then you'd have to give up your business cards. And stop wearing the shoulder bag. And the bonus is only x months away so you'll start thinking about it then.

Until one day you won't be able to take it any more and you'll find yourself arranging to meet with people from a lightly regarded firm for a position in their New York office. And you'll worry that the XOXO crowd will see you.

And you don't believe any of this will happen, but I suggest you print this out and keep it in the top desk of your drawer so late at night when you're feeling sorry for yourself, you can add to the list of reasons to be miserable this fact: someone told you this was going to happen and you thought that person was crazy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3018220&forum_id=2#28981123)