Interview: Jeff Brooke: Law Firm Partner Spends Five Year Sabbatical Sailing Around the World

Over 20 years ago, Jeffrey Brooke co-founded the law firm of Bowman & Brooke, now one of the largest product liability defense firms in the country, with more than 160 attorneys in six offices (and also one of JD Bliss' Work Life Balance Winners; see post here).

In 1999, Brooke recalls, his wife Ann declared that they should devote some time to simply enjoying each other. The Brookes had vacationed on rented boats before, and Brooke was convinced they could handle a longer sailing trip. At the time, Brooke was 55, and had been in practice over 30 years. He now says that if it hadn’t been for his wife he probably would have stayed on the job, "working on my first heart attack." Instead, Brooke planned for a "sailing sabbatical" with his wife with the same level of detail that he used to plan for a trial.

The Brookes sold their house, bought a 51-foot yacht, High Drama, and spent months checking it out and preparing. When they sailed from San Diego in November of 1999, they had no idea how long they would be gone – six months, a year, or more. It turned out to be five years, interspersed with four trips back to Phoenix. They traveled 30,000 miles and visited 39 countries. The entire trip is chronicled at a special website: Sailing High Drama.

Based on his experience, Brooke has this to say about sabbaticals: "I’ve become convinced that something longer than a vacation is necessary to allow lawyers to recharge their batteries. The perspective you gain, and the physical benefits you receive from time off, even time off between job changes, make the effort to take the time worthwhile. Lawyers sometimes feel that life can’t go on without them, and if you have that viewpoint it’s time to step back while you’re practicing and realize that the truth is quite different. Don’t wait until you think you’ll have enough time and money and health to do it, because it’s naïve to think the stars will ever perfectly align that way."

Click the link below to read more about Brooke's fascinating sabbatical journey - how Brooke's partners and clients reacted, the financial and management arrangements worked out, and much more.

JD Bliss (JDB):  You’ve just completed a five-year sabbatical from the law firm that you co-founded which was spent on a sailing odyssey with your wife during which you traveled 30,000 miles and visited 39 countries. Are you someone who enjoys undertaking unique challenges?

Brooke:  You could say that I’ve always been drawn to challenges:  from being captain of the Northwestern University football team and a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, to joining with my partner Dick Bowman more than 20 years ago to found Bowman and Brooke LLP (www.bowmanandbrooke.com).   We’ve become one of the largest product liability defense firms in the country, with more than 160 attorneys in six offices, and I headed the Phoenix office while pursuing a very active products liability practice.  We believe that products liability lawyers should master their products, so I’ve operated and tested cars, trucks, ATVs, helicopters, forklifts – sometimes to the point of experiencing equipment failures myself.  My practice, and the firm’s practice generally, is anything but deskbound, and we tend to attract lawyers who are adventuresome.  Dick, for example, is an avid hot air balloonist and motorcyclist, and I’m a pilot and have  had a longtime interest in sailing.

In short, you could say that my sailing sabbatical fits a pattern consistent with how I’ve spent my life and built and operated my legal practice.

JDB:  Could you describe the basics of your sailing sabbatical – why you chose to do it, where you went, how long it lasted?

Brooke: Basically in 1999 my wife Ann declared that we should devote some time to simply enjoying each other.  We had vacationed on rented boats before, and were convinced we could handle a longer sailing trip.  I was 55, had been in practice over 30 years, and if it hadn’t been for my wife I probably would have stayed on the job, working on my first heart attack.  As it was, I decided to plan for the trip with the same level of detail that I used to plan for a trial.  We sold our house, bought a 51-foot yacht, High Drama, and spent months checking it out and preparing.  When we sailed from San Diego in November of 1999 we had no idea how long we would be gone – six months, a year, or more.  It turned out to be five years, interspersed with four trips back to Phoenix.  We traveled 30,000 miles and visited 39 countries.  We dealt with storms, constant maintenance and the challenge of being at close quarters with each other for so long.  But it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and we made the most of it.  When we left we put the setting sun on our bow, the Big Dipper on our right, the Southern Cross on our left, and stayed in that general configuration for the rest of the time.

JDB:  As a key partner in the firm, what was your biggest worry about leaving your practice to embark on a sabbatical?

Brooke:  The hardest part, the most difficult decision, was to step off the treadmill at the top of my game.  There was no worry about the firm, because I knew that when I returned life would have gone on without me.  I also knew that I would not return to the same career that I left – that I’d be attending meetings instead of the person calling them.  If we had planned on a shorter sabbatical that might have been a concern.  But by planning to be gone for an extended time, once I made the decision to leave I knew that these things would happen, so the rest was easy emotionally and everything basically fell into line.

JDB:  How did the process work for transitioning your practice to others in the firm?  Were your clients and fellow partners basically supportive of it?

Brooke:  I was working with younger partners on most of my major open cases, so I basically transitioned full responsibility to them.  In every instance where that was done, we met with each client individually to explain the change, and not one client expressed any hesitation about it.  The interesting thing about the process was that these younger partners, who were just starting to grow in their careers and many of whom I had hired, are now the senior management of the firm after five years and have enormous books of business.  The process was obviously successful, because in the five years I was gone the firm doubled in size.  And I’m also proud of the fact that our diversity increased along with our growth:  40% of our attorneys and 20% of our partners are now females, and 20% of our attorneys reflect cultural and racial diversity – all higher figures than when I left, and all a result of conscious choice by the firm as it grew.

JDB:  Could you generally discuss the financial arrangements you made with your partners for your absence, including whether they set a precedent for others in the firm to make similar arrangements?

Brooke:  I was totally uncompensated during the five years I was gone.  There was some suggestion that I might want to receive some compensation for ongoing expenses, but I felt this was totally against our firm culture, which emphasizes the personal responsibility of each lawyer to develop and secure business.  Not only did I want to avoid causing any resentment over being compensated, I also felt that if I accepted compensation I could not refuse if I were called back for any reason – and I didn’t want to come back until I was ready.  This caused some surprise within the firm; there was a betting pool on how soon I would come back, and although I never learned what the odds were I’m sure they were quite long for the person who was gone for five years.  So far as precedent, other than encouraging the general concept of sabbaticals, we’ve not set any formal policy as a result of my experience.  We’ll handle each person and their arrangements on a case-by-case basis.  As a related example, we have a partner in our Detroit office who is also a tenured law school professor, and we adjust the time and compensation requirements for him according to our needs and the academic schedule.

JDB:  While you were gone were you completely out of touch with the office, or were you available if an emergency arose?

Brooke:  I had a laptop that we used to maintain a web site about our travels (www.sailhighdrama.com), and during the years I was gone it became more feasible to use email via high frequency radio, so I did communicate that way.  I also stayed in touch periodically by phone.  During the five years I was gone I was only consulted once on an emergency matter.  It was a disagreement involving firm governance and I disqualified myself – I was in Tahiti and was too far removed physically and emotionally to offer any meaningful help.  And so far as regular communication, again, it was something that was possible but not really feasible.  My wife and I lived on the boat for a few months before we left, and I had all my emails sent to me there.  Early on I was tempted to become involved in one disagreement that was being hashed out in emails between a partner in Los Angeles and a senior administrator in Minneapolis.  I realized, though, that I was no longer in a direct position to intervene in such a way that would help – in fact, it would have been counterproductive – so that was an early lesson to avoid management by email.

JDB:  After an absence of five years, how difficult was it to transition back into firm life?  Has your practice picked up where it left off?

Brooke:  My practice did resume and I have picked up several cases, include a major one that is about ready to start.  I’ve also assisted several partners with their cases for the clients I had worked with.  However, things are not coming in at the rate they were before I left, and my focus is actually quite different.  I’m putting more emphasis on firm management, and on evaluating our overall case focus.  Even more important, one of the most rewarding things I’m doing since my return is guiding our mentoring and training efforts.  Coaching and teaching have always been very important to me – from my first job as a camp counselor, to my involvement in football and the Marine Corps, to starting and growing my own firm.  We’re now having an internal debate over whether our training should put more emphasis on internal efforts or on external training programs, and that’s a decision area where I’ve taken a lead role.

JDB:  How did your fulfillment from your sailing adventure compare to the fulfillment from returning to your practice? Do you feel that your sabbatical enhanced your satisfaction with being a lawyer?

Brooke:  Each was satisfying in its own way.  The practice I left was a demanding and thrilling one, but I see now that it also involved a major investment of ego.  It’s gratifying but less exciting to be back, but my time off has given me the perspective to separate the wheat from the chaff.  I’ve gotten a Blackberry, and I check my emails.  I’ve seen how much technology has changed our practice as a firm, such as in the use of videoconferencing rather than hopping on a plane, and the use of computer software at trial.  But the fundamentals of the law are exactly the same – any changes are just variations on a theme.  And that, to me, puts the importance of any one lawyer into proper focus.

JDB:  Would you recommend a sabbatical to other attorneys as a means of enhancing their career satisfaction?

Brooke: I’ve become convinced that something longer than a vacation is necessary to allow lawyers to recharge their batteries.  For thirty years as a partner I had a month of vacation time coming to me every year, and I only tried to take the full month once.  Right in the middle of it a major case was set for trial the first day I was due back, and the judge (who I knew personally) joked that it shouldn’t be a problem, I could just catch up the evening before.  Of course I came back early, and that’s always a temptation with a short-term vacation.  The result is that it cancels out any benefit from being away.  The perspective you gain, and the physical benefits you receive from time off, even time off between job changes, make the effort to take the time worthwhile.  Lawyers sometimes feel that life can’t go on without them, and if you have that viewpoint it’s time to step back while you’re practicing and realize that the truth is quite different.  Don’t wait until you think you’ll have enough time and money and health to do it, because it’s naïve to think the stars will ever perfectly align that way.  I learned that marinas are full of people who had planned their long distance trips for years, and by the time they were ready to take them their health wouldn’t allow them to leave the dock.