Robin M. Wolpert, BridgeTower Media Newswires
The legal profession is the most hazardous of all professions to our health, research shows. What’s more, our future generation of lawyers is most at risk, with younger lawyers suffering the highest rates of problem drinking and depression.
If you think you are just fine and don’t have to worry about lawyer well-being, think again. Lawyer well-being isn’t just about us individually. It’s about the vitality and workability of our colleagues, our teams, and our organizations. Moreover, when one of us is struggling, it comes back to us individually. We may pick up the slack, cover for others, or become enablers. We may suffer challenges to our own mental health. All of this impacts lawyer competence and client service in every sector of the legal profession.
This article is the first of a series focusing on the multi-faceted crisis of lawyer well-being. One goal of this series is to provide some basic information about the mental health and chemical dependency challenges facing our lawyers. A second goal is to spark discussion about how we can move from being spectators to agents in creating solutions and building cultural change in our profession.
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What is lawyer well-being?
Lawyer well-being is not just the absence of illness. And it’s not feeling happy all the time. The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being defines lawyer well-being as a continuous process whereby lawyers seek to thrive across all life’s dimensions — emotional health, occupational pursuits, creative or intellectual endeavors, sense of spirituality or greater purposes in life, physical health, and social connections with others.
The taskforce emphasizes that lawyer well-being is part of a lawyer’s ethical duty of competence. “It includes lawyers’ ability to make healthy, positive work/life choices to assure not only a quality of life within their families and communities, but also to help them make responsible decisions for their clients. It includes maintaining their own long term well-being.”
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A primer: The 2016 ABA Hazelden Study
Just two years ago, our profession got a loud wake-up call. A blockbuster study of nearly 13,000 currently-practicing lawyers was published by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. The 2016 ABA Hazelden Study concluded that attorneys experience problematic drinking that is hazardous, harmful, and consistent with alcohol use disorders at a higher rate than other professional populations. Significant proportions of attorneys experience some level of depressive symptoms and elevated anxiety. Here are just a few of the staggering statistics:
• Between 21 and 36 percent of lawyers are problem drinkers.
• Lawyers 30 years of age or younger are significantly more likely to engage in hazardous drinking than older lawyers.
• 28 percent of lawyers struggle with depression.
• 19 percent of lawyers struggle with anxiety.
• 23 percent of lawyers struggle with stress.
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The 2016 law student survey
Six months later, the 2016 Survey of Law Student Well-Being was published, providing additional cause for alarm. After surveying 15 law schools and over 3,300 law students, the report found the following:
• One-quarter of the law student population is at risk for alcoholism.
• 43 percent reported binge drinking at least once in the past two weeks.
• 22 percent reported binge-drinking two or more times in the past two weeks.
• 17 percent experienced some level of depression.
• 14 percent experienced severe anxiety.
• 23 percent suffered mild or moderate anxiety.
• 6 percent reported suicidal thoughts in the past year.
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The 2017 National Task Force report
In response to these two studies and their implications for the health of our profession, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being published its report and recommendations in August 2017. The Task Force’s key message is this: “To be a good lawyer, one has to be a healthy lawyer” and “the current state of lawyers’ health cannot support a profession dedicated to client service and dependent on the public trust.”
The Task Force Report is a call for action. It sets forth a blueprint for creating a movement to improve well-being in the legal profession. It contains specific recommendations and action items for all stakeholders in the legal profession — judges, lawyer regulators, legal employers, law schools, bar associations, lawyers professional liability carriers, and lawyer assistance programs.
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The toolkit
This past summer, the ABA launched a well-being toolkit for lawyers and legal employers. The toolkit makes the business, professional and moral case for lawyer well-being and goes on to provide an 8-step action plan for legal employers:
• Enlist leaders in the organization who will commit, support, and role model lawyer well-being and communicate the business case for well-being.
• Launch a well-being committee to lead the initiative.
• Define well-being.
• Conduct a needs assessment to determine the gap between the desired and current state of lawyer well-being, including an audit of policies and practices that influence well-being
• Identify priorities that are manageable and achievable
• Create and execute an action plan
• Create a well-being policy
• Continually measure, evaluate, and improve.
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The pledge
Recently, the ABA Working Group to Advance Well-Being in the Legal Profession published a “Well-Being Pledge” for legal employers. The ABA asks lawyers and organizations to pledge their support to creating a better future and adopt the following seven-point framework:
• Provide enhanced and robust educational opportunities to lawyers and staff on topics related to well-being, substance use disorders, and mental health distress
• Disrupt the status quo of drinking-based events
• Develop visible partnerships with outside entities committed to reducing problematic substance use disorders and mental health distress in the profession
• Provide confidential access to addiction and mental health experts and resources to all employees, including free, in-house self-assessment tools
• Create a proactive written protocol and leave policy that covers the assessment and treatment of substance use and mental health problems, including a defined back-to-work policy following treatment
• Actively and consistently promote and encourage help-seeking and self-care as core values of the organization
• Highlight the adoption of this well-being framework to attract and retain the best lawyers and staff
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Well-being is a team sport
Individual well-being is not just a function of our traits and qualities — it depends on the context within which we operate. Situational factors like workload, a sense of control and autonomy, adequate rewards, a sense of community, fairness, and alignment of values with our organizations influence whether we are engaged or experience burnout.
