What do Serena Williams, Jim Halpert, and the Ostroffs when our son was born in 2018 have in common?
It’s not that all three of them have ever tried to answer an email with one hand while holding a baby, a coffee, and their sanity…well maybe it is…
But it’s really about preparing for maternity or paternity leave.
Serena took time away from Tennis and came back like a superhero. Jim was seriously a huge jerk towards the end of The Office until he realized Pam and the kids were more important than the sports thing (and really until Pam secretly listed the house and agreed to move them to support it…but still).
And the Ostroff’s? Well at first it was my wife having 3 days of maternity leave and even less for me…but eventually we got it figured out and didn’t send our son to daycare until he needed it for his speech development (side-note he has NOT stopped talking since…)
The birth of our child basically forced the question: “Is your business built to support life, or is life just something you do between emergencies?” And now this is a huge thing I work with law firm owners on.
If you’re planning leave (or even if you’re not, but you’re the kind of person who keeps a go-bag because you’ve seen movies), here are five tips that make the whole thing… not relaxing, but at least not catastrophic.
Tip 1: Pick a “Decision Owner” for Each Category (So You’re Not the Supreme Court)
Most firm owners think they need a single “person who can handle everything.”
That person does not exist. That person is a myth, like a lawyer who loves password resets.
Instead, assign decision ownership by category:
Client communication and expectations Case strategy decisions Staff questions and approvals Intake and new leads Money: billing, deposits, payroll, trust accounting approvals
This is not about dumping responsibility on one poor soul like Batman. It’s about removing the bottleneck and building the Bat Family.
If everyone needs you to answer “Can we file this?” or “Should we discount this?” from a hospital chair, you’re not on leave.
You’re just working with worse lighting and terrible food. Your org chart should not look like a bullseye with you in the middle.
Tip 2: Write the “If Jordan Gets Hit By a Bus” Playbook (Yes, I Know That’s Dark)
Call it the Bus Binder, the “In Case of Baby,” or the “Please Don’t Burn the Place Down” folder.
You need one place where your team can find the basics without Slack-spiraling into panic:
Current case status dashboard (even a simple spreadsheet is fine) Key deadlines and how you track them Templates: client updates, continuance requests, intake follow-ups Vendor list: court reporters, experts, IT, marketing, bookkeeping Login access (use a password manager, please, do not hide sticky notes like it’s 1997) This is boring.
It’s also the difference between “I took leave” and “I spent leave answering 47 texts that start with ‘Quick question…’”
Stark Industries survived him being held captive in the desert and I don’t even need you to build an Iron Man suit on vacation.
Tip 3: Do a Two-Week “You’re Gone” Simulation (Like a Fire Drill, But With More Email)
Here’s a fun exercise that will make you mildly nauseous in the best way.
Two to four weeks before leave, pretend you’re already gone:
You do not answer internal questions unless it’s an actual emergency. You route all decisions to the category owners. You track every time someone tries to pull you back in. This exposes the real gaps fast. You’ll learn things like:
Your team doesn’t know your settlement authority process. Everyone is scared to call the opposing counsel without you. Intake leads are getting handled like it’s a group project where nobody wants to be captain. Good. Now you can fix it before you’re sleep-deprived and negotiating with a tiny dictator who only accepts milk and chaos.
This is another reason why I encourage my clients to take a day off during the week.
When they return the next day, they can resolve all the system issues that caused holds while they were out. This way one day becomes one week, then one month, then…(Batman) forever?
Tip 4: Set Client Expectations Before You Leave (Or Clients Will Set Them For You)
Clients don’t get mad because you took leave. They get mad because they feel surprised, uninformed, or ignored.
So give them a clear plan:
“Jordan will be out from X to Y.” “You’ll still hear from us weekly.” “Your point of contact is [Name].” “If there’s an emergency, here’s what that means and here’s how we handle it.” And yes, you can say it like a human.
“Hey, I’m going to be out on parental leave. Your case is still in good hands. If you need anything, Kevin our accountant has you covered and I trust him completely.” Okay, okay…so maybe not THAT Kevin…
That sentence does more for client confidence than 19 pages of legalese ever will.
Oh and you WILL have clients who don’t follow that…ideally you can just fire them…but at least this will mitigate the number of issues as most clients will understand.
Tip 5: Decide Your Leave Rules Now (Because You Can’t ‘Just See How You Feel’ When You’re in It)
This is where most law firm owners lie to themselves.
They say, “I’m going to be totally off.”
Then day three hits, they check email “real quick,” and suddenly they’re back to being the on-call wizard for every problem.
So choose your rules in advance:
Option A: Fully off. No email. Team handles it. You come back to a debrief. Option B: Light touch. One 30-minute check-in twice a week. Option C: Strategic only. Someone filters issues and only sends true “you decisions.”
Whatever you pick, put it on the calendar, communicate it to the team, and stick to it like it’s your kid’s bedtime routine (which you will also not control, but we can dream).
Also, pro tip: if you think you’re Option A but your firm currently can’t survive 24 hours without you, that’s not a moral failing. That’s just data. And it’s fixable if you start now.
What This Looks Like When It Works
I saw this recently with a client.
They’re an immigration firm with offices in multiple states, and the owner was convinced leaving any office meant that office would stop moving.
We implemented category decision owners, created a simple playbook, ran a two-week simulation, and cleaned up client communications.
THEN we had the best staff from the older offices start training the new offices.
Within a few months, the team was handling 80 to 90% of questions without the owner, response times stayed steady, and we narrowed the 30% difference in close rates between the offices (by bringing up the bottom ones…not by lowering the top ones).
The best part?
The owner now travels at their leisure to each office and feels calmer than before they left.
Because offices are like babies…sometimes they cry and cause you to lose sleep, other times they grow up and become helpful…you get to control which one is more likely.
Your kid can score the game winning run, and your office can fund your retirement without giving you grey hair!
If you want help setting this up so your leave doesn’t turn into “working, but now with diapers (for the baby, although hey…you do you!),” this is what we do at Atticus. We help law firm owners build the systems, structure, and team accountability they need to step away without everything falling apart.
And yes, we can do it without turning you into a corporate robot.
Learn more about Atticus coaching and schedule a free discovery call here .
Next week, we are going super deep on If Key Employee Quits, Does Your Firm Survive?
Until then,
Take five minutes, open your calendar, and circle every meeting you currently attend that someone else could attend if you gave them a decision rule. Pick one of those meetings to hand off this week, just as a test run.