Whether it is being a judicial assistant to the Vice-Chancellor or travelling the world, lawyers agree that breaks can recharge their careers, reports Lucy Hickman

Work, eat and sleep.

Repeat it until you burn out (with eating and sleeping optional).

A lawyer's life is a tough one: long hours, a maniacal attention to detail and a relentless application of brain power, often - paradoxically - combined with mind-numbing monotony.

But how would it be if, just for a while, you could step off the treadmill and give yourself a rest? Enter the career break.

Taking this concept somewhat to extremes, perhaps, in September 2002 was Alex Curtis, now a commercial property solicitor at Shoosmiths' Birmingham office.

Having qualified in 1999, he chucked in his job as a property lawyer at Birmingham firm Anthony Collins to go on a world tour.

Over the next 12 months, he and his girlfriend Emma visited 14 countries: China, Nepal, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Uruguay.

Unlike many of his friends, who travelled straight after university, Mr Curtis specifically planned to go at a later stage, so that he would have more money and therefore could travel more comfortably.

He adds: 'I felt that at this early stage in my career it would not do me so much harm to take a year out, especially as the commercial property market was still fairly buoyant when I left.'

Disadvantages of his trip, he says, were being surrounded by armed Bolivian border police and being threatened by an irate T-shirt seller in Bangkok in a case of mistaken identity.

While the pros included his first glimpse of Mount Everest from the Tibetan side, and sky-diving over Lake Taupo in New Zealand.

He says more people should take sabbaticals but adds that 'it is very important to pick the right time, otherwise it could impact adversely on your career'.

'It is a chance to step off the hamster wheel and broaden your horizons.

I feel it helped me as a lawyer.

I had to plan ahead, budgeting for 12 months during the trip and producing a detailed itinerary.

I had to learn to deal tactfully with bureaucrats and people with very different cultures and values from the UK.

I experienced extremes of climate, corruption, poverty and consequently I now have a very "can do" attitude to property deals.'

Not everyone, of course, would want to take such a radical step as giving up a job to go travelling, but law firms are increasingly offering sabbaticals as a reward for long service.

Kara Penridge, private practice manager at legal recruitment agency Garfield Robbins, says firms mostly offer such a perk for partners after a certain number of years, and it is generally only US firms that offer it to assistants.

She says that with the economy and recruitment improving, more firms may offer sabbaticals in future as a means of retaining staff.

She adds: 'Things are definitely picking up on the recruitment side and firms are looking for more things to keep their lawyers happy.

It's a good idea [to have] an anti-burn out programme - particularly for transactional lawyers.

'Lawyers nowadays put more of an emphasis on the work/life balance - certainly the candidates we're seeing do.

To offer a sabbatical puts a more positive light on the sort of culture a firm has.

It shows it is willing to be more flexible.'

Mr Curtis says: 'Law firms do seem to be realising that sabbaticals are a part of the whole work/life balance and whilst many people may not choose to take time out from their career, it could help to attract and retain the right lawyers.'

Gavin Tyler, a partner at Tunbridge Wells-based Cripps Harries Hall, took advantage of the three-month sabbatical offered to equity partners after ten years' service in the summer of 2002.

His firm, he says, has offered such a perk to partners for several decades but has only recently introduced a six-week sabbatical option for non-partners who have been with the firm for more than ten years.

Mr Tyler's plan was to spend time at home with his wife and children - although he admits he spent a fair amount of the time on the golf course.

He and his family then spent five weeks in Minorca.

'I didn't do a stroke of work all the time I was off, although one partner went off and read the Bible in original Greek.

We're all stimulated in different ways, I suppose.

'It was certainly refreshing.

When I came back, I had less of the grey office pallor which lawyers get.

Lawyers work too hard and this is a good chance to spend some time away from the office.

The best bit was waking up on the morning of the third week, the sun was shining and I didn't have a care in the world and still had another 11 weeks off.'

He says the idea is to have no contact with the office, 'which is good because it makes you realise you are not indispensable'.

'When you get back, you realise you are surrounded by competent people and that partners don't have the monopoly on knowledge or legal ability.

'It's a genuine perk.

I worked very hard for many years and getting out of the rat race for a while gave me a new perspective on how I could do things more efficiently.'

Mr Tyler actually changed practice area when he returned from sabbatical, moving from professional negligence to his 'first love - employment'.

Nonetheless, he says it was very difficult getting back into work.

'The first day back, I just wandered around.

It's not like coming back from holiday because you have spent several months before you left winding things down and persuading clients that it's a good idea for you to go off for three months.

It takes about a month to get back into it, but within two or three months it's like you've never been away.'

He admits that sabbaticals can put pressure on the remaining staff, particularly when the firm is fairly small.

'Bigger firms are likely to be able to absorb the work more easily,' he says.

The career break last year of Michael Ranson, who has just become an assistant in City firm Macfarlanes' estates, residential and agricultural property group, took him not to warmer climes but to the Court of Appeal, where he served for three months as the judicial assistant to the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Andrew Morritt.

Much of his work involved sifting through the paperwork sent in by litigants-in-person to back up their often hopeless cases, and summarising them for the judges.

He says: 'It was something very different.

I went from a large City law firm to the Court of Appeal, where there were no commercial pressures.

It was a very different role and a real eye-opener.

'It certainly didn't do me any harm as a lawyer.

It forces you to be open to learning and getting to grips with new areas of law which you wouldn't come across in a City firm - anything could come up from a litigant-in-person.

I won't perhaps put much of what I learnt into practice, but it may have made me a more rounded lawyer.'

Mr Ranson says it was quite strange going back: 'I was only there for three months so I didn't get too immersed in it, but it did make me realise that you can work quite long hours in a City firm.

There was much more emphasis on having a work/life balance in the Court of Appeal.'

He adds: 'I think career breaks can be beneficial as long as you are doing something worthwhile.

I'm not sure it necessarily makes you a better lawyer if you go off to find yourself in Marrakech.'

Lucy Hickman is a freelance journalist