Protecting the Legal Mind

• Citation: Vol. 48 No. 3 Pg. 40
• Year: 2025
• Pages: 40

Protecting the Legal Mind No. Vol. 48 No. 3 Pg. 40 Wyoming Bar Journal June, 2025

A WARNING

Law school and the legal profession^[1] are known to cause brain damage^[2], substance abuse^[3] and suicide.^[4] Use extreme caution and only proceed with proper training and safety equipment.

With that type of warning label, it is incumbent upon leaders in the legal profession to take well-being seriously. What must be done to protect those currently in our profession from languishing? What is required to attract intelligent, dedicated, and hardworking individuals to the legal profession with a promise to help them flourish?^[5] Why should we care?^[6]

It may seem this well-being movement is coming out of nowhere. Back in the day we were directed to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get back in the saddle! I tried to recall the first time someone addressed well-being as an important ingredient to success and longevity in the legal profession. What came to mind was a flashback of when I started my bar exam preparation course 24 years ago. The presenter started the course with a thought-provoking suggestion. He cautioned us not to neglect ourselves, our families, and our friends as we prepared for the bar exam. He emphasized his point by holding up a beautiful, clearly flourishing, house plant. He walked across the front of the classroom, opened the closet door, gently placed the plant inside the dark closet, and closed the closet door. He walked back to the chalkboard (yes, a chalkboard) and wrote, "What will happen if I leave the plant in the closet without watering it or allowing it to have sunlight for the remainder of the summer?" I said, "It will die." He said, "Exactly! Do not do the same to yourselves, your families, and your friends!"

Rethinking Lawyer Well-Being

by Hon. Antoinette Williams

Of all the things I learned and promptly forgot that summer, this is the story I recall. Well-being is encompassed in his warning to not neglect ourselves, our families, and our friends. But what does that mean?

To help answer this question, I highly recommend reading Debra Austins recently published book, The Legal Brain: A Lawyer's Guide to Well-Being and Better Job Performance. Austin thoroughly addresses why we need to take care of ourselves in order to take care of our most valuable asset, our brains.^[7] Specifically, her book emphasizes that taking care of our brains (i.e. ourselves) contributes to helping everything around us flourish.^[8] From Austin's book I have composed a list of recommendations to begin your well-being journey.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides a basic framework to begin because each category impacts the brain and because whether you are flourishing or languishing centers around your brain. According to Maslow's Hierarchy, our needs are categorized as follows: physiological needs (food, water, breathing, sleep, clothing), safety and security (health, family and social stability, employment, property), love and belonging (a sense of connection, intimacy, family, friendship), self-esteem (confidence, achievement, respect for self and others, the need to be a unique individual), and self-actualization (purpose, meaning, acceptance, spontaneity, creativity, inner potential, morality). Taking each category into consideration as well as Austin's book, I recommend the following as first steps toward your goals.

Physiological Needs

1. Sleep: Adequate sleep is one of the most important activities a lawyer can improve on to enhance brain function.^[9] Sleep supports recovery and the lawyer brain needs sufficient time to recover. Sleep is a highly active metabolic process in which cells and tissues are repaired and regenerated, energy levels are restored, and brain structure is optimized. Learning, memory, creativity, and problem-solving are all processes that improve with adequate sleep, which averages between 7.5-8 hours each night. Lawyers who shortchange their sleep are at greater risk of obesity and developing diseases that involve chronic...