Working as a New York City medical malpractice defense attorney in 2019, Amy Shane was busy. When she wasn’t caring for her small children, she was driving long hours in her car to go to depositions, making court appearances and researching her cases. There were people everywhere she went, and yet Shane says she felt alone.

“I could be crammed into a small room with other lawyers. I could be seeing the same faces over and over, having polite conversations and still feel lonely,” she says.

Shane, now 48, also felt like she couldn’t let her guard down.

“The reality is when you are a litigator, everyone is an adversary, and you have to keep your guard up. You have to remind yourself, ‘These are not my friends,’” says Shane, who has since moved to the Baltimore area and works as a medical attorney for a hospital system.

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared a public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection in the country. He warned about health consequences, such as increased risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia, along with premature death.

Studies depict lawyers as struggling under the stress of their jobs and lifestyles, weighed down by a host of mental health issues and uniquely positioned to experience feelings of isolation. In 2018, for example, the Harvard Business Review found that lawyers outranked engineers and research scientists when it came to loneliness.

Additionally, a 2023 article, which detailed a sample of 1,962 lawyers, found that high levels of perceived stress, work overcommitment and loneliness increased the risk of suicidal ideation among lawyers. “Stressed, Lonely and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk” was published in Healthcare, an open-access journal.

Lawyers are facing a loneliness epidemic and are in need of increased mental health and wellness intervention, experts warn.

Advice on how to address feelings of isolation varies, but mental health experts agree counseling is an important step. There are a host of other ways to relieve loneliness—including finding group activities and pursuing a healthier work-life balance—but first, wellness experts say, lawyers must recognize and articulate their exact emotions.

Yvette Hourigan, the director of the Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Program, says lawyers tend to use the words “stressed out” or “anxious” rather than “lonely.”

“Failing to identify ourselves as being lonely is hampering our ability to treat it,” says Hourigan, chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs.

Marc E. Gustafson, a litigator in the Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Bell, Davis & Pitt, says his experiences as a mediator have helped him realize how the combative legal system can lead to feelings of isolation. He advises other lawyers to try to be less adversarial to opposing counsel and look for opportunities to collaborate.

In addition, Gustafson, who has written about combating loneliness on a North Carolina Bar Association blog, says lawyers “sometimes revert to playing the role of a lawyer instead of being their true selves.”

“Portraying something other than your authentic self could lead to feelings of isolation,” he adds.

Attorneys, even ones who are successful in their careers, nevertheless often lack confidence and therefore avoid revealing any vulnerabilities, says Gary Miles, a trial attorney- turned-lawyer coach.

“If you can’t tell other people your fears and concerns, then you will keep it inside and be unhappy,” says Miles, who also served as a managing partner.

The American Psychological Association defines loneliness as “affective and cognitive discomfort or uneasiness from being or perceiving oneself to be alone or otherwise solitary,” but it is not considered, on its own, a medical condition.

Feelings of loneliness are often connected to a larger depression. “Physical signs of loneliness may include cold or flu-like symptoms that linger longer than usual, headaches, body aches and insomnia or hypersomnia,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

Olivia Ash, a benefits compliance attorney in Indianapolis, worked in wellness education before she went to law school. She researched loneliness in the industry and wrote a book titled Painting the Landscape of Loneliness: The Drive to Connect and the Strategies to Identify Your Needs.

Ash describes feelings of isolation as “the dashboard light indicator that something is wrong in your mental and emotional well-being.”

She emphasizes that loneliness is “perceived isolation” that signals there is a discrepancy between an individual’s needs and experiences. Ash began her research on loneliness in the legal profession in 2018 while still in law school, a year after getting divorced and feeling isolated from her classmates. She has since expanded and updated her research.

UCLA has developed a survey to assess subjective feelings of loneliness or social isolation. The UCLA Loneliness Scale includes 20 statements such as “I have nobody to talk to,” “I lack companionship,” “I feel as if nobody understands me” and “I feel completely alone,” which are designed to indicate the degree of loneliness a respondent may be feeling.

Many studies depict lawyers as struggling under the stress and business of their jobs. Patrick Krill of Krill Strategies has conducted numerous studies on the topic, often collaborating with other researchers. In 2016, he helped conduct a nationwide study of about 13,000 lawyers that exposed the extent of their mental health issues. Published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the study found that between 20.6% and 36.4% of lawyers had problematic alcohol use; 19% suffered from anxiety; and 28% experienced depression.

In 2020, Krill co-conducted a survey of about 2,000 practicing lawyers from California and Washington, D.C., which found that lawyers who described themselves as lonely were nearly three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than lawyers who didn’t perceive themselves as lonely.

An article on the study, published in Healthcare in 2023, described the profile of a lawyer with the highest risk for suicide as a socially isolated male with a high level of unmanageable stress who was overly committed to work and may have a history of mental health problems.

Bree Buchanan, a senior advisor for Krill Strategies, says firms can help alleviate some of the emotional struggles of their employees, including loneliness, by making sure “everyone understands a shared mission.” People who feel like they are on a team working toward a meaningful goal tend to draw closer to each other, she says.

In addition, Buchanan says affinity groups provide employees with places they can go where their challenges are more likely to be understood.

“It’s almost an instant friend group,” Buchanan says.

A few years ago, Jessica Foley, a solo practitioner in Quincy, Massachusetts, started struggling with her work-life balance, as she describes it, and felt exhausted all the time. She was working from home and felt like she was “always in the weeds.”

“I felt like I was stuck,” says Foley, who joined up with Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, a Boston-based lawyer assistance program. She started attending weekly virtual support groups for lawyers with ADHD, which gave her a sense of connection she realized she had been lacking.

Energized to find community, Foley recruited other lawyers to join a solo practitioner group that meets virtually on a weekly basis to discuss legal issues and then “random stuff” like children, pets and travel.

Foley, 50, then started looking for more opportunities to socialize with other attorneys, including moving her practice to a multi-office space. She now works part time from home and part time from her office, where she can check in with other lawyers and sometimes go out for lunch.

“It helps just having other people around while I’m working. It’s like small microdoses of socializing,” Foley says.

Lawyers who feel isolated can seek out lawyer assistance programs like Foley did. These programs often provide a wealth of well-being and mental health support services, says J. Ryann Peyton, executive director of the Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program and the Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice, two lawyer professional development programs run by the Colorado Supreme Court.

Peyton also says law firms should prioritize the mental health of their employees and connect employees to counseling services and mentors. In addition, Peyton thinks law firms should establish more holistic compensation structures that prioritize not just hours billed or revenue generated but also other contributions, such as client satisfaction and professional well-being.

“In the hustle-and-grind culture, lawyers are valued on their ability to bill hours and make money,” Peyton says. “We need to find ways to recognize the humanity in every lawyer, including their vulnerability.”

Besides sponsoring wellness programs, firms can encourage more experienced lawyers to mentor the newcomers to help them settle into their new roles and start forming genuine relationships, Miles says.

Some attorneys also use social media for feelings of connection, such as Facebook groups for lawyers. While long-term friendships can develop through social media, there is a downside to communicating online instead of developing in-person relationships, according to legal consultants and lawyer coaches interviewed by the ABA Journal.

Sometimes social media is used as a substitute for confronting emotional challenges and creating real-life connections. Lawyers, and particularly young lawyers, should ask themselves how frequently they are using social media to escape into an anonymous world, says Paula Davis, an attorney and founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute.

Arizona Baskin, a 28-year-old criminal defense lawyer in Prescott, Arizona, works from home but spends hours driving hundreds of miles most weeks to courts throughout the county. To combat loneliness, Baskin turned to an old hobby of his: amateur radio. From his car, Baskin can chat on his ham radio with people who live locally or far away.

“Sometimes the conversations are really nerdy and about how the radio waves work and the sun’s status,” Baskin says. “Sometimes the conversation strays into movies or the people in your life.”

Baskin says he sometimes attends in-person ham radio club meetings. In addition, Baskin has collected about 50 guns. He emphasizes that going to gun shows and stores is a way not just to pursue his hobby but also socialize with people with whom he can connect because of a shared interest.

Wellness experts agree that pursuing interests and hobbies after work is helpful for both finding an identity outside of being an attorney and forming new friendships.

“The key is finding something that brings you joy because when you are in your element, you will find people who share the same interests, and you can find connectivity,” says Karen Munoz, a lawyer in Chicago who founded Roaring Grace Mindful Wellness, which provides coaching, education and mentorship to lawyers.

“If you don’t know what it is that brings you joy, try something new, and then try something new again,” she says.

Ash, who has taken up painting in her spare time, suggests that finding a creative outlet “allows us to process emotions, including loneliness, while developing skills and finding new interests.”

Law firms can also help their employees feel connected to each other by reserving time during retreats for networking and social connection. In addition, Davis suggests that firms foster connections by having legal teams and lawyers volunteer together, rotating causes that interest them.

“People can start to form strong bonds volunteering even just for an afternoon,” Davis says.