Lessons in Resiliency from a Lawyer Under Fire

• Date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Joseph P. Beckman

Published in Litigation News Volume 47, Number 3, Spring 2022. © 2022 b y the American Bar Ass ociation. Reproduc ed with permission. A ll rights reserv ed. This information or an y portion there of may not be copied or dis seminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

By Joseph P. Beckman, Liti gation News Asso ciate Editor

Lessons in Resiliency from a Lawyer

Under Fire

Several weeks ago, I handed in my quarterly column.

Two developments since that time caused me to beg

the higher-ups at Litigation News to put that piece on

the back burner in favor of this one, which I hastily

composed past deadline.

One development I suspect m ay resonate with many of our

readers: Russia’s invasion of Ukrai ne. The second is much

more personal: my rece nt trip to my sister’s house to spend a

week providing “respite care” to ou r 93-year-old mother.

What do these disparate events have to do with a wellness

column? I think, after six hours of reection as I drove home

to Chicago, they prompted me to get out of my own head and

look at well-being from a different perspective.

War . . . What Is It Good Fo r . . .?

The rejoinder to this call is, of course: “Absolutely nothing . . .

Say it again, y’all.” That statement is true, particularly if you

are living (or trying to live) in the war zone.

So how does this war i mpact the well-being of those of us

who are thousands of mi les from the battleeld and not at

© Getty Image s

32 | LITIGATION SECTI ON