Lawyers
and
other
professionals
within
the
legal
profession
often
need
to
work
long
hours
under
tight
deadlines
in
order
to
complete
tasks. As
a
result,
some
lawyers
and
judges
might
make
attorneys
and
other
professionals
work
through
lunch
in
order
to
complete
projects
with
the
least
amount
of
wasted
time. Sometimes,
a
genuine
emergency
requires
people
to
work
through
lunch
in
order
to
complete
projects
on
exigent
schedules. However,
most
of
the
time,
lawyers
and
other
professionals
should
be
given
a
lunch
break,
since
it
is
the
humane
thing
to
do,
and
tasks
are
not
important
enough
to
warrant
working
through
lunch.
Earlier
this
year,
I
was
in
court,
and
had
to
stay
in
the
courthouse
because
a
judge
wanted
to
speak
with
the
lawyers
involved
with
a
few
dozen
cases. I
did
not
expect
this
to
take
too
long
since
all
the
judge
needed
to
do
was
ascertain
the
status
of
the
matter
and
assign
a
trial
date. However,
I
ended
up
waiting
in
court
for
six
hours
to
speak
with
the
judge
for
perhaps
three
minutes.
Around
noon,
I
started
to
get
hungry,
and
I
asked
the
court
officers
if
I
could
leave
the
courthouse
in
in
order
to
grab
a
bite
to
eat. The
court
officers
told
me
that
I
needed
to
stay
put
since
the
judge
could
call
my
case
at
anytime
and
would
not
wait
for
me
to
return
after
eating
lunch. I
ended
up
needing
to
procure
lunch
from
a
vending
machine
in
the
courthouse,
which
was
not
an
ideal
situation. This
is
a
real
shame
since
one
of
my
favorite
fast-food
chains
was
located
a
few
hundred
feet
from
the
courthouse. I
used
to
be
a
competitive
eater
(yes,
it’s
true!),
so
I
probably
could
have
made
it
to
the
restaurant,
ate
my
lunch,
and
returned
to
the
courthouse
in
about
15
minutes. The
court
should
have
given
me
the
courtesy
of
allowing
me
to
grab
a
bite
to
eat
since
people
operate
better
when
they
are
not
hungry.
Many
times
in
my
careers,
lawyers
suggest
working
through
lunch
to
compete
depositions. In
some
circumstances,
this
makes
sense. If
lawyers
are
in
a
remote
location,
and
the
lawyers
can
either
work
through
lunch
or
return
for
another
day
of
testimony,
it
is
usually
advisable
to
work
through
lunch. However,
when
lawyers
are
involved
in
a
routine
deposition
in
the
area
around
their
offices,
it
is
usually
discourteous
to
pressure
attorneys
to
work
through
lunch
unless
they
are
absolutely
fine
doing
so.
There
are
many
reasons
why
lunch
breaks
make
sense
in
the
legal
profession. Perhaps
most
importantly,
people
need
to
eat
food
to
stay
concentrated,
and
sometimes,
even
for
health
reasons. When
people
do
not
eat
for
a
long
time,
they
can
become
grumpy,
and
most
practitioners
know
that
lawyers
are
not
always
the
best
people
to
be
around
in
stressful
situations. Moreover,
a
lunch
break
is
often
necessary
for
lawyers
to
attend
to
other
matters. When
someone
is
taking
or
defending
a
deposition
all
day,
it
is
often
impossible
for
them
to
respond
to
emails,
take
phone
calls,
or
work
on
any
of
the
other
matters
to
which
that
lawyer
is
assigned. In
addition,
it
is
usually
best
to
take
a
mental
break
from
a
matter
so
that
the
lawyer
can
approach
a
task
with
fresh
eyes
after
a
lunch
break
is
completed.
All
told,
courts
and
lawyers
need
to
be
aware
that
it
is
not
easy
for
everyone
to
forgo
a
lunch
break
in
order
to
focus
the
maximum
amount
of
attention
on
a
legal
matter.
Unless
there
is
a
real
exigency,
lawyers
and
other
legal
professionals
like
court
reporters
should
be
entitled
to
a
lunch
break.
Jordan
Rothman
is
a
partner
of The
Rothman
Law
Firm,
a
full-service
New
York
and
New
Jersey
law
firm.
He
is
also
the
founder
of Student
Debt
Diaries,
a
website
discussing
how
he
paid
off
his
student
loans.
You
can
reach
Jordan
through
email
at jordan@rothman.law.