10 Questions. Serving Two Tribes

• Author: Jenny B. Davis
• Pages: 13-14

Inter Alia | 10 QUESTIONS

returned to practicing law but is no

longer practicing criminal law. She is

now a sole practitioner advising health-

and-wellness business owners in Des

Moines, Iowa.

Regenold says it’s important to make

self-care a priority, including wellness

practices like meditation, bodywork

and movement practices, and setting

boundaries. One telltale sign to look

out for is withdrawal. “That’s classic

with compassion fatigue—withdraw-

ing from all the things you love, and

what you’re left with is the darkness of

your work.

If you can stay engaged in people

and activities that have nothing to do

with the law, you’ll remember there is

light and good in the world.”

Normalizing discussion

Practicing self-care and seeking thera-

py are important steps for mitigating

the impact of vicarious trauma. But

it can be challenging. The long hours

lawyers tend to work leave little room

for spending time in nature, pursuing

hobbies or simply pausing to assess

one’s inner state.

There’s also a stigma in our profes-

sion for getting therapy.

Additionally, talk therapy may be

difcult to access in managed health

care systems, which tend to favor medi-

cation instead.

Vicarious trauma, along with other

mental illnesses, needs to be discussed

starting in law school, and seeking help

for these issues should be normalized.

On an organizational level, law rms,

bar associations, public defender ofces

and district attorney’s ofces should

regularly address lawyer well-being

and make it a priority. Lawyers are not

immune from mental health issues, and

struggling with vicarious trauma isn’t a

personal failing. It’s simply a sign that

you’re human. Q

Jeena Cho consults with Am Law 200

rms on stress management, resiliency

training, mindfulness and meditation.

She co-wrote The Anxious Lawyer and

practices bankruptcy law with the JC

Law Group in San Francisco.

10 QUESTIONS

Serving

Two Tribes

This Alaska lawyer blends life

and law as a tribal court judge

and an Orthodox Jew

BY JENNY B. DAVIS

How does a Jewish kid from

Philly become a tribal

court judge in Alaska? Just

ask Judge David Avraham

Voluck. Born and raised in Philadelphia,

Voluck has been practicing federal In-

dian and tribal law from his home base

in Sitka, Alaska, since 1996, save for a

two-year sabbatical he took to attend

the Rabbinical College of America.

He presides in the Sitka Tribal Court

(primarily Tlingit and Haida Indians)

and the St. Paul Island Tribal Court

(primarily Unangan Aleuts), and is

organizing an intertribal court for the

Kodiak archipelago villages. He co-au-

thored two editions of Alaska Natives

and American Laws and is faculty for

the National Judicial College’s National

Tribal Judicial Center and the National

Tribal Trial College housed at the Uni-

versity of Wisconsin Law School.

OK, how did you end up

becoming a tribal court judge in

Alaska?

Because I wanted to save the world! I

was always very attracted to nature and

the environment, so I went to Lewis

& Clark Law School, which was the

top-rated school at the time. I studied

environmental and natural resources

law, but I wasn’t connecting with it. I

was encouraged by a friend to do an in-

ternship with a tribe in Sitka, and I met

indigenous people who lived in nature

and relied on the environment for their

life, their culture and their well-being.

It added a spiritual piece and a human

piece, and I was smitten. The Sitka peo-

ple were kind enough to offer me a job,

and I accepted.

Was it hard to get used to the

cold?

Actually, the day-to-day in Sitka is

very warm. We’re located in a temper-

ate rain forest—there’s a gulf stream

current that keeps it between 65 and 45

degrees. We don’t like to tell people that

because we lose a lot of sympathy when

people realize we don’t live in igloos.

The villages where I visit are a different

story. Next week, I am going to a place

called Noorvik, and the last time I was

there, it was minus 40. They picked me

up from the airport in a sled.

Judge David Voluck

Photo courtesy of Judge David Voluck

ABA JOURNAL | FEBRUARY–MARCH 2020

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