Attorney Wellness
| Jurisdiction | United States,Federal |
| Citation | Vol. 27 No. 4 Pg. 0052 |
| Pages | 0052 |
| Publication year | 2022 |
This article features how Henry County Presiding Magistrate Judge Amanda Flora integrates wellness into her time on and off the bench.
BY MEGAN MURREN RITTLE
Wellness has become a term of such common vernacular that we see it everywhere— in advertising and labeling. Everyone from our grocery retailer to our insurance companies want to get in on our journeys that are becoming geared more and more toward wellness. But wellness, like style of eggs, is very specific to the person who is consuming it, and the phase of life (or day when we are talking eggs) that they are presently experiencing. Specifically, as it relates to lawyers, wellness can look very different at the beginning of practice than it does at a stage closer to retirement.
During 2021, the Attorney Wellness section of the Bar Journal featured articles exploring the different aspects of Designing an Integrated Life.[1] Throughout that series, we reviewed aspects of each area of wellness as defined by the American Bar Association, which includes emotional, social, physical, spiritual, intellectual and occupational well-being.[2] During the 2022 year, the Attorney Wellness section will feature Georgia Lawyers integrating their wellness into practice throughout the stages of practice.
Meet Hon. Amanda Flora. Judge Flora began her career in 2004 in public service at the Walton County District Attorney’s office. After an opportunity came up in her home of Henry County, Flora made the move to the Henry County Public Defender’s office where she stayed for seven and a half years before making a move to the other side of the “v” to the Clayton County Solicitor’s Office and then to the Henry County District Attorney’s Office. In 2016, Flora left public service for private practice in a two-woman firm where she stayed for two years before she got her call to the bench.
Throughout her career, Flora has always made her well-being a priority. “I am really big on self-care,” Flora shared. “I have a group of girlfriends that I take a quarterly spa day with.” Flora explained that she and her group take a whole day to get massages, visit the steam room, chat, have some wine, eat lunch and go home. One of the important components to her successful quarterly decompress days? No lawyers! “It never ends and we can’t turn it off with lawyers! It has always been important to me to get away from shop talk.”
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