Lawyer Stress, 0317 ALBJ, 78 The Alabama Lawyer 115 (2017)
| Author | Robert B. Thornhill, J. |
Robert B. Thornhill, J.
The practice of law is an essential and time-honored profession!
Business, government and individuals depend on competent legal representation. Without the indispensable role that lawyers play, our social and governmental structures would crumble. Some of our most disciplined minds have dedicated themselves to upholding the rule of law, and to providing the very best care possible to their clients. However, this challenging work is frequently very stressful. If this inherent stress is not dealt with in a healthy way it can lead to devastating consequences.
The causes and manifestations of lawyer stress are numerous and often overwhelming. In this article I will describe many of the causes of lawyer stress, the kinds of negative outcomes that can result if left unaddressed and effective ways to achieve and maintain improved mental, emotional and physical health.
The Rules of Professional Conduct make it clear that a lawyer must be fit. Most attorneys correctly understand that this means fitness of legal expertise. However, for those lawyers who truly desire to practice law at their optimum level, fitness also means acquiring and maintaining the physical, psychological and emotional health necessary to meet the demands and responsibilities to their clients and to the profession.
The daily work of lawyers provides a multitude of situations that can trigger anxiety and stress. Among these are fear about appearing before a certain judge, worry about meeting a potential client, feeling insecure about negotiating a big deal, anxiety over delivering an important presentation or conducting a voir dire examination and on and on. It is true that stress/anxiety causes a physiological release of stress hormones in our brains that help our cognitive resources respond quickly to real or perceived threats. However, there is a cost. There is a body of research that shows that in this state people may become “mindful of their own needs such that they tend to be relatively unmindful of principles that guide ethical or moral reasoning, thus leading them to behave unethically.” According to Dan Defoe, in his article, “Lawyer Anxiety, Self-Protective Behavior, Ethical Sinkholes, and Professional Responsibility,” the connection between anxiety and work can result in significant negative consequences in the areas of personal well-being, health and ethics and professional responsibility. He went on to list the following important connections that are supported by scientific literature: • Negative emotional experiences at work have an association with decreased performance, increased job-related tensions and lower commitment;
• In the presence of job-related tension and stress, employees are more likely to engage in negative coping skills;
• Anxiety has been shown to lead to worse outcomes in negotiations;
• Anxiety has been shown to negatively impact performing tasks that require the use of creativity;
• Higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol are correlated with anxiety;
• Anxiety has been linked to diabetes and hypertension; and
• Anxiety triggers a feeling of threat, which in turn may increase unethical behavior.1
Chronic or unrelenting stress can be an underlying cause of numerous physical health risks. If the mind perceives a threat, the body will remain aroused. The adrenal glands secrete corticoids (adrenaline or epinephrine, and norepinephrine). Over time the continual release of these “fight or flight” chemicals can have devastating effects on some of the most important functions that keep the body healthy. These functions include responses of the immune and inflammatory systems, growth, tissue repair, digestion and reproduction. There is also a direct link to metabolism, blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate and breathing rate. Almost every system in the body can be significantly altered by unrelenting stress.2
An excellent example of the results of unrelenting stress can be found in a series of courageous and enlightening posts on “The Faculty Lounge” by Charlotte School of Law Professor Brian Clark. Bravely acknowledging that he suffers from major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, he provided his own personal and compelling commentary regarding the difficulties and challenges of practicing law. He states in part, “Practicing law is hard. The law part is not hard (that was the fun part for me), but the business side of law is a bear. Finding clients, billing time and collecting money are just a few aspects of the business of law of which I was not a big fan. Keeping tasks and deadlines in dozens (or hundreds) of cases straight and everything done well and on time is a constant challenge. The fear of letting one of these balls drop is terrifying, especially for the Type-A perfectionist who is always terrified of making a mistake or doing a less-than-perfect job. Forget work-life balance. Forget vacations. Every day out of the office is another day you are behind.” He continues, “Plus, as a lawyer (and especially as a litigator), no matter how good a job you do sometimes you lose. That inevitable loss is made worse by the emotion that the lawyer often takes on from his or her client. Clients only call, of course, when they have problems. Those problems can range from the mild (for example, a traffic ticket) to the profound (like a capital murder charge). Whatever the problem, the client is counting on the lawyer to fix it. Every lawyer I know takes that responsibility very seriously. As much as you try to not get emotionally invested in your client’s case or problem, you often do. When that happens, losing hurts. Letting your client down hurts. This pain leads to reliving the case and thinking about all the things you could have done better. This then leads to increased vigilance in the next case. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, for some lawyers this leads to a constant fear of making mistakes, then a constant spike of stress hormones that, eventually, wear the lawyer down. The impact of this constant bombardment of s tress hormones can be a trigger to a change in brain chemistry that, in time, leads to major depression.”3
In a landmark study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine in February 2016 entitled, “The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys,” researchers found “rates of hazardous, harmful, and potentially dependent drinking and high rates of depression and anxiety symptoms.”4 Further review and...
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