Vacation time is no time at all

As an attorney your time is only measured in billable hours and it is actually one of the perks of the job that you don't have to clock in or out so long as you bill your hours. So how do vacation days fit into that?

A former co-worker of mine who also left my former firm never took any vacation time in the past year of work. The firm gives 13 paid vacation days to attorneys and staff alike, but the difference is that the attorneys have to make up the billables that they lose in taking those days. I was told by a partner that the firm does not actually track the attorneys' vacation days because it doesn't matter how many days we take so long as we bill our hours. So then, the question becomes...when an attorney leaves the firm do they get paid for the vacation days they didn't take?

If you have to make up those hours you take on a paid vacation day then do you actually ever get paid vacation? Think of it this way: how fair would it seem if my husband, who works exactly 40 hrs per week and clocks in and out in his federal gov't job, had to work weekends to make up for the paid vacation time he took? It's just moving shifts, not taking vacation.

It's really surprising to me that this issue has not gotten more attention. At least an honorable mention of this problem in law school ethics class when they break down exactly how many hours you have to work a week to get 2000 hrs a year.

So what does my former co-worker do? Should he be paid for 13 days that he never took, or can the firm write him off and say too bad if he didn't make his billable requirement for the year?