The moment has arrived.

The solicitor has found another job to go to and he/she approaches his boss with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, letter in hand.

But will he/she have to work their notice?

If the solicitor is leaving for a competitor, the firm may not be keen to have the employee hanging around making unhelpful comments to staff and clients alike.

If the contract of employment allows for it, the firm may be able to send the employee home, effectively on holiday, for the period of notice.

Most employees will not complain - but if the contract does not specifically allow for this, it is probably a breach of contract.

If the employer is in breach, the employee can leave immediately and claim constructive dismissal.

This facilitates unfair dismissal claims and frees employees from most post- termination restrictive covenants.

Garden leave delivers bad value to firms because they are paying employees to do nothing.

One way for a firm to square this circle is to reassign solicitors' chargeable work as quickly as possible and then require them to spend their notice period working on those very important non-chargeable projects which no-one ever gets around to doing.

In these circumstances, the employee may just agree that the contract can terminate on short notice but the employee will not be paid for the balance of the notice they could otherwise have been required to serve.

However, the most common situation is still where employees are simply required to work out their full notice, normally carrying on working on their clients' files until the three months is up.

Most employees will do this in a professional and conscientious manner.

However, is there anything the firm can do if the employee simply refuses to work? Courts will not specifically enforce contracts which are personal in nature, but the firm can sue the employee in damages.

In some cases, the loss will be quantifiable on the basis of fees usually generated.

However, where we are dealing with an employee who is simply less co-operative than before, the position is more complicated.

In either case, however, the firm has two other very significant hurdles.

Most importantly, the vast majority of firms will fight shy of the publicity that they may receive for suing an employee.

It could leave their reputation in the job market in tatters.

Even if the firm is unconcerned about publicity, there is a very practical issue of whether the employee actually has the funds to be worth suing in the first place.

Ultimately, though, this is a matter of honour on both sides - a notion that is, happily, not entirely defunct in our profession.

Gareth Brahams is a partner in the employment and incentives department of City firm Lewis Silkin