Lawyer Wellness

Secondary trauma hits attorneys hard; here’s how to navigate it

There’s a lesser-known but profound challenge within the legal profession: secondary trauma. For many attorneys and judges, the emotional toll of handling distressing cases can accumulate, creating lasting psychological impacts.

Aug 12, 2025 9:23 AM CDT

At Sheppard Mullin, employee benefits include help with tasks like finding care for aging parents

It’s a common theme—law firm staff and attorneys juggling caregiving responsibilities in their personal lives with their careers. But Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton says it has found a way to help.

Aug 4, 2025 9:34 AM CDT

Craving Connection: Lawyers, who face stress and adversarial work, experience more isolation than many professionals

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.

Aug 1, 2025 1:40 AM CDT

From man’s best friend to a lawyer’s best partner? How some law firms utilize therapy dogs

A study in the American Psychological Association’s peer-reviewed journal Emotion found that the participants who spent time with their dog after a stressful task experienced a better mood and reduced anxiety than those who did not. So law firms and the courts have been steadily adding therapy dogs, court facility dogs and untrained dogs that happen to be calm and comforting. The ABA approves: The House of Delegates passed a resolution in 2021 supporting the use of trained dogs to help witnesses during testimony.

Aug 1, 2025 1:20 AM CDT

All About the Action: Are lawyers more at risk for gambling addiction?

“Something about gambling draws in certain types of lawyers,” Harry Levant says. But the same things that make them successful in the courtroom can turn against them with gambling and make them vulnerable to wins and losses, he notes.

Aug 1, 2025 12:00 AM CDT

The brain tumor that almost made me blind

As a lawyer, I used to think advocacy was something I only did for others. After almost going blind, I learned the hard way that it’s also something I must do for myself.

Jul 31, 2025 10:23 AM CDT

You can talk about your mental illnesses. It’s good for business

“You can’t talk about your mental illnesses. It’s bad for business.”

I've heard this countless times in various forms. And for a long time, I listened.

I bought into the idea that silence was safer, that vulnerability was a liability and honesty could cost me everything.

Eventually, I couldn’t be quiet any longer.

Jul 16, 2025 11:00 AM CDT

Pitt Law grad credits creative writing class for her winning story in ABA Journal’s 2025 Ross Writing Contest

A creative writing class at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law awakened a love for writing and led to a $5,000 prize for the winner of the 2025 ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction.

Jul 10, 2025 12:13 PM CDT

Resilience From a Roman: Lessons from Marcus Aurelius on weathering adversity

Lawyers have plenty of reasons to feel overwhelmed these days. Beyond taking on our clients’ problems as our own, technology is roiling the bar, and the courts and politics feels more contentious than ever, sowing anxiety and uncertainty in an already-stressed profession.

Jun 12, 2025 10:51 AM CDT

This lawyer has no regrets about pursuing a career as a running coach

When people asked Lisa Levin why she stopped practicing law after investing so much time, money and effort into a Duke University School of Law degree, she wondered if she was racing the right course as a running coach. Initially a passion project, the company Run Farther & Faster, co-founded by Levin in 2009, has allowed the former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld associate to help runners achieve their goals while utilizing the knowledge she developed as an attorney.

Jun 1, 2025 1:20 AM CDT

Bullying is a problem in the legal profession. How can the cycle be broken?

“I have heard from so many people saying, ‘This is exactly what happened to me,’” says Erin Gordon, author of Look What You Made Me Do: Confronting Heartbreak & Harassment in Big Law. “Partners in particular have power in their firms, and they are like bullies in the schoolyard.”

Jun 1, 2025 12:00 AM CDT

What to know when hiring the next generation of lawyers

It's not your grandfather's law firm anymore. Technology, shifting societal norms and generational differences are reshaping today's legal practices. To attract the new generation of legal professionals, lawyers must throw out "the way things have always been done" and reinvent their firm's culture.

May 19, 2025 11:11 AM CDT

More lawyers report billable-hour pressures affect their mental health, survey finds

Billable-hour pressures are negatively affecting mental well-being, according to 65.5% of lawyers and staff members surveyed by ALM and Law.com Compass.

May 15, 2025 9:16 AM CDT

How will you celebrate Well-Being Week in Law?

The first week of May is an opportunity for a highly stressed profession to take a step back and consider some self-care by celebrating the Well-Being Week in Law.

May 7, 2025 4:30 PM CDT

Hit your stride and strive without strife

Embrace sustainable goals. The start of a new year often inspires lofty resolutions, if not illusions of grandeur, about the habits we’ll develop and professional goals we’ll conquer: more billable hours, bigger matters, rapid career advancement and the like. Yet with the first quarter already behind us, the initial momentum has all but faded, and many attorneys find themselves buried under the weight of their ambitious goals and the pressure to consistently deliver at a high level.

Apr 22, 2025 2:34 PM CDT