A Distressing Business

• Author: Jeena Cho
• Pages: 28-29

A Distressing Business

Su ering can be the human consequence of lawyering

By Jeena Cho

Many lawyers pract ice in the su ering business.

Perhaps they should’ve taught us this in law school.

Day One would’ve been a good place.

As a bankr uptcy lawyer, I see a lot of human su ering.

Needless to say, no one ever comes to see a bankr uptcy

lawyer with happy news. O ften, people end up in my

o ce because of a death, ill ness, divorce,

loss of job or some other unexpected life

event that overwhelmed them fi nancially.

What they also should’ve taught us in

law school is that being in the presence

of someone su ering a ects you. Often,

attorneys mist ake this e ect as wea kness,

ine ect ive lawyering, or as a sign that they

are somehow fl awed as a n attorney.

RECOGNIZE VICARIOUS TRAUMA

I wish I had know n that none of these

assumptions are tr ue, and that the distress

lawyers exper ience when faced with a client

who is su eri ng simply makes us human.

There’s a diagnosis for the distress one

experiences when wit nessing someone

else’s su ering: vic arious trauma.

The symptoms of vica rious trauma

are similar to d irect trauma. Lawyers

might experience sleep dist urbances

or vivid nightmare s; feel numb when

interacting w ith clients; or, on the

fl ip side, may exper ience an unusual

intensity of emotions, such as obses -

sive rumination about the trau matic

events.

Also common is ext reme anxiety

or fears that the attor ney herself will

experience a simila r trauma. Some also

may experience a change in bo dily

functions, such as d i erent eat-

ing habits, loss of sexual desi re or

even panic attack s.

Sarah Weinstein, a former

lawyer and now psychotherapist

based in Berkeley, California ,

says lawyers can re cognize

vicarious trau ma when “instead

of feeling separate from their

clients and having compassion

for their struggles, at torneys fi nd

themselves overwhelmed w ith

emotion and unable to think

construc tively or sometimes

at all. Emotion begins reg ularly to overtake cognit ion.”

It is important to recog nize that vicarious trauma

can be cumulative f rom prolonged exposure to t he

traumatic exper iences of many clients or, with a very

intense trauma, c an arise from a single exposure.

Shannon Callah an, a Chicago-based senior counsel

at Seyfar th Shaw, says she experienced

vicarious trau ma while handling an asylum

case based on sex ual violence. “I felt so sad

and couldn’t stop cry ing. I avoided working

on the same type of ca ses because I didn’t

want to risk losing agai n and the impact

on the client if I did,” Callahan says .

Often, the ca ses we work on as lawyers

carry w ith them dire consequences, yet our

ability to infl uence the outcome of any given

case is limite d. Perhaps one privilege we get

as lawyers is we ca n advocate and change

outcomes. But we must be mindful of the

impact exercising this pr ivilege has on our

own well-being.

Callahan say s, “I still think about my

client and wonder how she has been since

her deportation. I worry for her and w ish

the best—and feel responsible and sad for

the outcome. My narrative, to help me

cope, is that I knew it wa s a tough case

and that I did my best.”

After many ye ars of struggling

with chronic insomn ia, feeling sad yet

at the same time feeling numb and

working around the clock, I fi nally

sought a therapist. It was

liberating to learn t hat I am not

the only one who struggles w ith

these feelings, that it’s normal

to think about your clients

and to relive their trauma .

I learned that I can

be more resilient

through self-care

and mindf ulness

practices.

On

Well-

Being

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE JC LAW GROUP

Practice

“SECURE YOUR

OWN OX YGEN

MASK BEFORE

HELPING OTHERS.”

— JEENA CH O

28 || ABA JOURNAL JUNE 2018