Introduction

• Library: Positive Professionals: Creating High-Performing Profitable Firms Through Engagement (ABA) (2017 Ed.)

When I sat down to type a final good-bye note to my law firm colleagues of 15 years, I knew it was time to go. Still, tears streamed down my face as I hit the send button on the email announcing that I was leaving the firm and the practice of law. It was the right decision, but it had been a hard one. I analogize it to tearing an arm off Aron Ralston-style, as reenacted in the film 127 Hours. I had wanted to be a lawyer since I was 11 years old. I was the first kid in my family to go to college. The day I walked across the stage in a black cap and gown to receive my J.D. diploma was one of the happiest days of my life—and one of my parents' proudest. I had worked my butt off to become an equity partner at one of the nation's largest law firms. And now I was walking away.

The note I typed that day conveyed how honored and grateful I felt to have been a partner with so many exceptional lawyers. I thanked them for the great adventure we had shared and explained that I was going back to school to study how positive organizational psychology could benefit the legal profession. What followed was a barrage of emails from lawyers of all levels and pay scales saying (in so many words) that they were jealous. They wished they too had found a new meaningful path or had mustered the courage to pursue their true calling. Maybe I should have predicted this reaction given my chosen field of study, but I was shocked. The outpouring reinforced my view that, for too many lawyers, law was not living up to its potential as a fulfilling, engaging career.

The cliché that, on our deathbeds, we'll never wish that we had worked more implies that work is simply a necessary evil—a soulless, meaningless transaction for pay. For too many lawyers, this is how they experience their professional careers. While I've met many lawyers who love their jobs, I've met many more who feel trapped, cynical, or burned out.

But this isn't inevitable. One way to avoid deathbed regrets about our work lives is to make work more meaningful. That's what Millennials say they want (Rikleen, 2014). Report after report about Millennial lawyers say things akin to "Millennials want to work, they're happy working, but they want to find meaning in work" (Bultman, 2016). And don't we all secretly agree? Given how much of ourselves we devote to our work and how few days we have on this planet, shouldn't we pay more attention to whether we're fully engaged, healthy, purpose-driven, or (dare I say it?) even happy? Historically, many law firm leaders have answered this question with a definitive "no." With their laser focus on profitability, they often act, at best, as if their colleagues' well-being is none of...