Attorney Wellness
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Pages | 0052 |
BY MEGAN MURREN RITTLE
Wellness Through the Stages of Practice
This is the second installment in a series of articles regarding attorney wellness throughout the many stages of practicing law. Be sure to look back at the February 2022 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal if you missed the first installment.
As I sit down to write this article, which is the second in a series centered around Attorney Wellness, several headlines in the news this week and from weeks past strike me as analogous to this feature. Just this week, Serena Williams, arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, announced her retirement in Vogue magazine, explaining her decision to choose building a family over building her tennis career.[1]Williams was quoted as saying:
Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don't think it's fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this because I'd be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family. Maybe I'd be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity.[2]
At the same time, Tom Brady made headlines for taking some time away from training camp, and missing the first two preseason games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to ''deal with personal matters, which many have speculated may have been a family vacation that was planned when he initially announced his retirement (before recanting and deciding to play another year instead).[3] Brady famously shares one son with actress and model Bridget Moynihan, and two children with his wife, model Gisele Bundchen.
Williams' announcement and commentary have brought up older headlines, specifically ones concerning the most decorated track and field athlete of all time, Allyson Felix, who published an op-ed in the New York Times in 2019, disclosing her treatment by sponsor Nike when she chose to start her family.[4] According to Felix, Nike's position was essentially that her pay would stop while she was pregnant and not competing, and, that she needed to get back to her pre-baby performance if she expected to obtain her pre-baby compensation. After the piece by Felix (as well as two similar pieces by her teammates Alysia Montano and Kara Goucher, also formerly Nike-sponsored athletes) was published, Nike decided to change its tune and institute a policy to protect its birthing athletes in the 18-month period following the delivery of their child.[5] [6]
Conversely, the same week Williams' article hit newsstands, Women's National Basketball Association 2019 Rookie of the Year Napheesa Collier returned to the hardwood less than three months after giving birth to her daughter to much applause as she would now make her season debut in the WNBA just in time to help her team, the Minnesota Lynx, make a final push to a playoff berth.[7] [8] Collier's story reminds me of Major League Baseball player, Daniel Hudson, who, in 2019, made headlines when he decided to miss a playoff game for the birth of his third child and received a lot of flack from the internet for taking advantage of the MLB's three-day paternity leave policy, which has been in place since 2011.[9]
Finally, as I write this, I am 35 weeks and four days (I'll spare you the hours and minutes, though I am counting every one) pregnant with my first child. Reading some of these headlines above, I feel that I can relate to some of these sports figures because I too feel faced with some of these challenges. Starting a family versus building my career. Feeling pressure to return to the game as quickly as possible postpartum. Knowing, because I am a partner at a private firm and am therefore beholden to the billable hour,[10] that I'll need to return to my pre-baby performance if I expect to continue to receive my pre-baby compensation. Therefore, as
I embark on what I am sure is an incredible journey, the two lawyers that I chose to feature have some wellness strategies that are particularly pertinent to me, but also to many more like me who are either thinking about growing a family, or who are already parents.
Changing Jobs and Careers, Being a Wife, Being a Mom and Running the Show
I asked attorney Erica Harrison Arnold to share with me some insights on her career as she experienced a transition in careers, as well as legal jobs, at the same time she began starting and growing her family. Arnold has been practicing law since 2012. Prior to embarking on her journey as a lawyer, she served as a public-school teacher in Atlanta. After receiving her JD from Harvard Law School in 2012, Arnold began her legal career with Alston & Bird as an associate in the government contracts and construction practice group. After five years at Alston & Bird, Arnold returned to public service, making the transition to working at the district level of the eighth largest school system in Georgia, Henry County Schools. In the past decade, Arnold also married her husband, blended a family and eventually became the biological mother to two children. Arnold currently serves as the executive director of legal compliance for Henry County Schools. Below are excerpts from the questions that I posed to Arnold for this feature.
Of the areas of wellness, as defined by the American Bar Association,[11] which is most important to you?
Surely, my answer on this has ebbed from one category to another (e.g., mental, social, emotional, spiritual, physical, financial) over my years of practice. At present, my spiritual and mental wellness are supremely important.
When you transitioned from law school to the big firm life, how did that affect your wellness? Mentally? Physically? Socially/ emotionally? Spiritually?
The ''big law'' firm that hired me after 3L year in law school was also the firm at which I had the opportunity to be part of the summer associate program for two years. I entered my first year as an associate attorney with prior relationships-” both among my entering...
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