During the recent conference season across the legal profession, I have spoken at numerous events and been asked one question: Did you take August off again this year?
In France, August follows a cultural tradition of mass summer rest known as les grandes vacances, during which major cities empty out and daily life slows down for the extended holiday period. In Italy, a similar tradition is Ferragosto, celebrated on August 15th, around which the nation pauses for an extended break. In England and Wales, we have long school holidays but no tradition of closing businesses or a national pause; it is more of a rolling holiday period, with fewer staff and some sectors seeing slower or more intense demand from customers or clients.
Personally, I am committed to rest and recuperation in August. It works for my clients and me, but I appreciate there is an element of luck in the legal services I provide, which facilitates this. Fortunately, the Court term of Trinity ends on 31 July, and because we advise professional service businesses, I can pause for the summer in the European style, though this year I did so in Snowdonia, having already travelled to Morocco and Ireland for short breaks.
Each year I get people, as a result of previous blogs, saying to me, “I know what you did last summer!” whether due to the 2025 Law Gazette opinion piece: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-and-opinion/taking-off-the-whole-of-august-is-the-right-choice-for-me-and-my-firm/5124428 or the first iteration in 2019: https://www.bennettbriegal.co.uk/thoughts-from-a-greek-island-digital-detox-the-brexit-shemozzle-and-exciting-times/ my point is not really about the national holiday trend which is growing if the UK media pieces in The Times and The Guardian over the summer are accurate (I suspect they are very much reflective of the greater pause than a decade ago). Not every solicitor can take the whole of August off; my business Partner, Mark, does not, because his workflow pattern differs, and he takes time off at different times, including epic adventures to the Paris Olympics and Paralympics and an extended tour of Japan over the last couple of years.
We protect each other’s pause periods.
Seasons
The point of this blog, and its previous iterations, is to encourage our clients, our colleagues in the professions, to remember that we are privileged to be paid to think, so we owe it to ourselves and our clients to take a proper break. We should refresh and recuperate our minds regularly. Sportspeople have an off-and-on season. Musicians have on-tour, recording a new album and chilling at home.
In the era of constant communication and technology, genuine rest and recuperation matter. The author Brad Stulberg, whose books and podcast focus on high performance and excellence, wrote on LinkedIn recently:
“Driven people should treat life in seasons instead of trying to balance everything every single day.”
Most solicitors and other professionals I know are driven people. The summer holiday period is a season, whether it is one week or longer.
For me, January to July is usually very much in-season and hectic with client work; this year, I have added to the challenge by writing a new book on AI for law firms. AI is arguably the fastest-moving technological shift in workplace history, while I’m trying to keep law firms adopting the technology and aware of the evolving risks.
September to December is an intense season for those of us advising the advisers, because professional firms typically implement major projects and changes during this time. The merger, the redundancy exercise for that underperforming team, and the new IT deployment typically fall into place at this time of year.
So how was my summer?
Two weddings full of joy. One of my extended family members and one of Mark’s daughters had summers of joy that started in June, continued in July, and concluded with the August pause.
Long walks on the beaches of Southern Snowdonia and around the less popular hills.
Before my break, I started reading London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, my book of 2026 among the eight I read or completed over the break. William Boyd’s The Predicament is a close second, which I read earlier in the year. I also read books on philosophy, clear thinking, artificial intelligence, and decision-making, which I’ll reference in client training courses and at conferences over the next year or two.
Between the reading sessions were some films: mainly musical biopics and thrillers. I also did a daily workout and got outside for long walks, avoiding the worst of the heatwave by planning around it.
Any work at all?
Of course, clients come first, and a couple of truly critical client issues arose; it is easy enough to filter these, so Mark, Deb, and a personal phone all played a role. So I did spend a few hours over the course of three and a half weeks away from the office looking after a couple of issues for the first time in a year or two during August. In sporting terms, it was a gentle pre-season run before the pre-season started.
Conclusion
Rest and renewal are so key when you think for a living; nothing revolutionary in how I rested and reset for the next season, but that is my point: the simplicity of rest and renewal for the period ahead means that we should all focus on it and not be driven by technology and constant communications.
Now I’m ready to go and have fun solving problems for clients in the new season, and the conference season in September and October has gone well because during the off season I enjoyed it.
Recent Comments