Prioritizing Mental Health in the Legal Field: Utah’s 2023 Milestones
| Publication year | 2024 |
| Citation | Vol. 37 No. 1 Pg. 21 |
| Pages | 21 |
January 2024
Lawyer Well-Being
By The Utah Bar Well-Being Committee for the Legal Profession
The year 2023 marked a significant step forward in the quest to prioritize mental health and well-being within Utah's legal profession. Under the leadership of the Well-Being Committee for the Legal Profession (WCLP) and with strong support from the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah State Bar Commission, a series of groundbreaking initiatives were launched. These efforts aimed at decreasing stigma, improving access to mental health resources, and embedding the importance of caring for our mental, physical, and emotional health into the culture of well-being among legal practitioners. This article explores the WCLP's key achievements in 2023 and how they are beginning to make a positive difference to the legal landscape in Utah.
Working to Reduce Stigma and Remove Barriers to Seeking Help by Encouraging the Revision of the Character &Fitness Application for Utah's Bar Exam
In the context of this article, stigma refers to the adverse attitudes historically prevalent in the legal profession associated with mental health issues, substance abuse, and related challenges. Chief among its consequences, a stigma of this kind can dissuade individuals from seeking the assistance and support they require.
Both in Utah and nationally, law students report shying away from seeking therapy, entering recovery, or using other healing modalities due to fear they will have to report it on a character and fitness application for state bar admittance. In 2023, the WCLP worked closely with the Utah State Bar's Admissions Counsel Emily Lee to recommend that the Utah Supreme Court approve the removal of affirmative questions seeking information about mental health struggle. The Utah Supreme Court agreed, helping aspiring lawyers to prioritize their mental health and well-being and seek treatment free from the fear of professional backlash.
Partnering with Lawyers Helping Lawyers and Bar Sections to Share Stigma Reducing Stories
Our efforts to reduce stigma have included emphasizing that mental health is something that we all share. We all have mental health all the time, and it exists on a spectrum between thriving and surviving and everywhere in between. It's a key life and professional asset that's important for all of us to care for...
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