Be Well

• Publication year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 47 No. 4

Be WellVol. 47 No. 4 Pg. 48Wyoming Bar JournalAugust 2024

Be Well

Maryt L. Fredrickson with Special Guests

Hon. Robert C. Jarosh & the Young Lawyer Section

Tips for Young (and All) Lawyers: Habits, Cultures & Reframing Work-Life Balance

Maryt Fredrickson is staff attorney for the Hon. Lynne J. Boomgaarden in Cheyenne, Wyoming; serves on the Ad Hoc Committee on Attorney WellBeing; and co-chairs the Access to Justice 2.0 working group of the Access to Justice Commission.

Surveys consistently show that young lawyers often shift employers within a few years. The same surveys gather data on why. This year's data from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), shows that 18 percent of associates leave their firms within four years, with a slightly higher percentage for women attorneys and other demographic cohorts.^[1] A 2022 report from the International Bar Association showed that for young lawyers, work-life balance was a common concern and barrier to retention for more than 60 percent. ^[2] An Above the Law survey likewise reported that dissatisfaction with work-life balance was the most important factor leading to attrition, greater than the role of compensation.^[3]

Attrition has costs. According to Thompson Reuters, the financial cost of losing an associate is upwards of $200,000.4 That sum may vary for different-sized firms, but other costs are also present: the need for senior attorneys to pick up work for the departing attorney; the impact on client relationships; the partnership and leadership gap for succession planning; and the need to start again, building institutional knowledge and skill sets with a new hire.

The common causes for attrition can be addressed, particularly in Wyoming's small and mid-sized firms that are more nimble than Am-Law 100 counterparts in other states. This month's column is a collaboration with the Young Lawyer Section of the Wyoming State Bar and features an interview with Wyoming's newest Supreme Court Justice, Hon. Robert C. Jarosh, about good wellbeing habits early (or late) in a career, how firms can support well-being efforts, and a call to stop segregating work and life as separate components. Work is part of who we are and what we do, and the two concepts do not need to compete.

YLS: Justice Jarosh, thank you for participating in this Q &A as we focus on how a culture of well-being can benefit new attorneys and their law firms in the legal profession. In...