If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know that I posted almost every day in May for Mental Health Awareness Month.
 
Last week,  I had the opportunity to discuss mental health and well being for an AmLaw 20 firm (one of my coaching clients) that opened the presentation up to all of its legal professionals. Hundreds registered. Too often, firms or companies focus on those with the highest salaries. As a former paralegal, I know how stressful that job can be. And I know I could never have done my job as a lawyer without the talented legal professionals who supported me.

Here are some scary statistics that I shared from the most recent ALM Mental Health and Substance Abuse Survey.

If you’re a law firm leader or work with legal professionals in any capacity, please read the report and take action. If you can’t get rid of the billable hour (which would solve a lot of issues), think about how you allocate work, respond to unreasonable client demands, and reward toxic perfectionism and overwork. 

✅ 71% of the nearly 3,000 lawyers surveyed said they had anxiety

✅ 45% said their morale has not changed since the pandemic

✅ 38% said they dealt with depression

✅ 31% struggled with another mental health issue

✅ 44% said they knew co-workers who struggled with alcoholism

✅ 15% said they knew someone in the profession who died by suicide in the past two years

✅ Over 50% of said they “felt a sense of failure or self-doubt, lost emotion, felt increasingly cynical and negative, and had decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment”

✅ A third said they felt “helpless, trapped, detached, or alone in the world.”

✅ More than 60% said they felt overwhelmed, irritable and exhausted or struggled to concentrate

✅ 28.1% used all of their vacation time, but only 31.1% said they could fully disconnect

✅ More than 76% of lawyers blamed their work environment for these problems

✅ 68% cited billable hour pressures

✅ 67% cited the inability to disconnect

✅ 54% cited lack of sleep

✅ 51% of lawyers said they would feel comfortable talking to an offsite professional

✅ Only 33% said they thought that they could take a leave of absence to address their mental health

✅ More than 72% indicated that remote work improved their quality of life

✅ 60% said that some amount of remote work improved their physical well-being.

😮 50% of the lawyers surveyed indicated that the profession is in a mental health crisis.

I see these issues with my students and with the lawyers I coach. Everyone may not have the passion I have to change the profession, but we can all do our part. So what can you do about it? Here are some resources to get you started.