Being Evergreen: Avoiding Burnout

• Author: Roberta Tepper
• Pages: 22-25

22 FAMILY ADVOCATE www.shopaba.org

Burnout. We’ve all heard about it, and many of us

have experienced it. Perhaps you’ve felt that

bone-deep, soul-wrenching weariness—the dread

you feel when you know you need a change and

cannot face your current practice anymore. Perhaps

it’s exhibited as a short fuse—a lack of inner reserves in

dealing with dicult cases, dicult people, or even situations

or people in our personal lives. Perhaps you think you are

ready to quit the practice of law. Burnout builds up over

time—but there is no bright-line rule for how long that

timeline is, or how quickly it may develop. Pinpointing the

specic causes of burnout can be like identifying the stick

that broke the proverbial camel’s back—it may be one thing,

or a combination of factors, and it may be dierent for

everyone.

Why Do We Burn Out?

You don’t have to be a long-time lawyer to experience

burnout. Our susceptibility to it is partially based on our

own resiliency, or lack of resiliency, and other pressures we

experience. It is not uncommon to hear newer lawyers state

that they are burnt out only a couple of years into practice. A

combination of the stress of building a new practice and

Being

Evergreen

Avoiding Burnout

BY ROBERTA TEPPER

nancial pressures, with a sprinkle of family strife, can be all

that is needed.

Lawyers, regardless of our practice areas, are essentially

helpers. And let’s face it—happy people need lawyers much

less frequently than people having a problem. While our

levels of empathy vary, we are all in the business of taking on

a client’s problem and working to x it. e relentless

bombardment of problems, unhappiness, even desperation,

eventually impacts us even if we don’t consciously realize it.

e stereotypical “big law” culture can also contribute to

burnout. You know how that sounds: “I’m so busy I never

take time o” or “I worked all weekend” or “I live at the

oce and eat at my desk.” Firms still requiring upwards of

1,400 to 1,800 billable hours a month—yes, even in this age

of lawyer wellness and well-being they still exist—contribute

to this dynamic.

is topic resonates with me personally; I’ve learned that

burnout can be insidious and creep up on us. For years when

I saw my primary care physician, she’d ask about my work.

Apparently, I’d routinely respond something like, “Oh, it’s a

very busy stressful time now, but it’ll be better soon.” What I

didn’t realize until she pointed it out was that I’d been giving

that answer for years—each time when I came to her with an

Published in Family Advocate, Volume 43, Number 3, Winter 2021. © 2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

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