Colorado's New Well-being Recognition Program Makes Good Business Sense for Legal Employers
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 14 |
WELLNESS
Colorado's New Well-Being Recognition Program Makes Good Business Sense for Legal Employers
BY MARK FOGG AND TONY MOORE
The legal community has been put on notice that lawyers and law students disproportionately suffer from mental health and substance use disorders.[1] As a result of a multiyear effort by members of the Colorado Supreme Court's Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, spanning years before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Colorado Well-Being Recognition Program for Legal Employers officially launched in January 2023 under the leadership and oversight of the Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program (CAMP), an office of the Colorado Supreme Court.[2]The problems facing the legal profession that prompted the formulation of local and national task forces have only compounded since the start of the pandemic. Now is the time for law firms and other legal employers that have not undertaken efforts to promote mental health and well-being initiatives within their businesses or organizations to act. It is not only the right thing to do. It makes rational business sense.
Identifying the Challenges
The problem of mental illness and substance abuse within the legal profession is well-documented. "Indeed, for more than 30 years, a significant number of studies, articles, and reports have demonstrated the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and addiction in the legal profession."[3] Two recent national studies, both published in 2016, reported "dramatically higher percentages of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and anxiety, and attempted and completed suicide [among attorneys and law students] when compared with the general population"[4]
This problem is costly not only to individuals, but also to legal employers, whose greatest asset is their attorney workforce.[5] Some of the main costs to law firms include reduced productivity from absenteeism, presenteeism, burnout, high attrition rates, and lawyer discipline and sanctions.[6] Attorney turnover continues to be extremely expensive for firms.
Sources of the problem are varied and include "social alienation, work addiction, sleep deprivation, job dissatisfaction, a "˜diversity crisis,' complaints of work-life conflict, incivility, a narrowing of values so that profit predominates, little time for mentoring and a negative public perception."[7] Other contributors include lawyers' lack of autonomy, law firms' reliance on the billable hour to make unidimensional assessments of lawyers, low-decision latitude among junior lawyers, and law firm culture that is hostile to values held by individual lawyers.[8] Another significant factor is the stigma associated with those issues.[9]
Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate these sources and their attendant costs. Legal employers can start by joining the Colorado Supreme Court's Well-Being Recognition Program for Legal Employers. As detailed in the March 2023 issue of Colorado Lawyer, this program provides support, incentives, and resources to legal organizations as they implement well-being practices in their workplaces.[10]
Cost-Effective Wellness Strategies
In 2021, our law firm, Childs McCune, LLC, participated in the Well-Being Recognition Pilot Program. One author of this article chaired the Colorado Task Force Business Case Committee, which studied this issue and made extensive recommendations to legal employers.[11] As a direct result of our participation in the pilot program, we established a Mental Health and Well-Being Committee to guide us in confronting mental health and well-being...
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