On the one hand, this is some truth here. The firm owes its lawyers leave, but a a licensed attorney's professional and ethical obligations run separate from employment. A client's malpractice claim doesn't really care if the lawyer missed that deadline because of leave or incompetence. Courts are out here actively denying scheduling changes for pregnant lawyers, if you want a sense of how the gatekeepers of the profession perceive the issue. It may not be right, but it's reality and firms can't have anything slip through the cracks.
But on the other, more accurate hand... this is 100 percent the firm's problem and not an individual attorney's. Historically, when correspondence came in through the mail or over the phone and got intercepted by admins, lawyers didn't have to deal with this problem on leave. Family and medical challenges aren't any less difficult just because law firms spent the last 20 years going digital and laying off secretaries. Firms have a whole host of straightforward measures they can take to keep clients protected when an individual attorney goes on leave. Checking email is actually one of the simplest. Verify that other attorneys in the firm are listed to receive ECF notifications! Set up an out-of-office notification at the administrative level! Have an "out of office" admin
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