Be Well

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming,United States
• Pages: 42
• Citation: Vol. 46 No. 3 Pg. 42
• Publication year: 2023

Be WellVol. 46 No. 3 Pg. 42Wyoming Bar JournalJune, 2023

Be Well

Maryt L. Fredrickson

A Generational Look at Attorney Well-Being

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.

Attorney well-being efforts are here to stay. Generationally, young lawyers are leading the charge nationwide. Attorney well-being courses are taught at some law schools. Young lawyers' groups host webinars and CLEs on the topic. And consistent with other generational trends, young professionals actively question whether business as usual should remain so when it impacts or diminishes well-being. "Work-life balance" became a catch phrase in the 1990s with Gen Xers—it implies carving out equal time for work and nonwork. But "work-life blend" is the concept discussed now—meaning a healthy, steady integration of both, in a flexible and intuitive way that works, without necessarily compartmentalizing work from life.^[1]

Regardless of the nomenclature you are most familiar with, attorneys at different phases of their careers experience well-being challenges in different ways. A retiring lawyer faces different challenges than a mid-career lawyer and a young lawyer faces their own challenges. This month's column aims to shed light on differences between those three career phases. This is necessarily cast in broad strokes and generalizations. Every person's well-being is unique to them.

As discussed in prior columns, well-being is a continuous process where lawyers, judges, law students, and legal professionals seek to thrive in each of the following areas—emotional and mental health...