Be Well

• Publication year: 2021
• Pages: 54
• Citation: Vol. 44 No. 3 Pg. 54

Be Well No. Vol. 44 No. 3 Pg. 54 Wyoming Bar Journal June, 2021

The Good, the Bad and the Not-So-Ugly: The Pandemic Standoff with Attorney Well-Being

Maryt L Fredrickson Ninth Judicial District Court & 307 Yoga LLC Jackson, Wyoming

The film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has an odd history.^[1]It was a box office success and launched Clint Eastwood into stardom. But as a "spaghetti western" the genre was not favored by critics at the time. Only later did the film become acclaimed as a definitive film and work of innovation.^[2] Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, including the practice of law, but we might only see later how the changes are ushering in a new era for attorney well-being.

The Good

The most palpable change in the practice of law is that you can do it from home. Your staff can too. Today I worked while sitting on a patio, surrounded by the sounds and smells of spring, wearing comfortable clothes. On breaks, I changed the laundry and put dishes away. By the time this is published, Wyoming communities will be infiltrated by that sweet, fleeting, week or two of blooming lilacs. Some of you might work outside those days, in your comfortable clothes, with your break time used on life tasks that used to be crammed in after work.

The flexibility of remote working may be a game changer in law, just as it is in the wider professional economy. At the risk of overgeneralizing, younger attorneys demand more flexibility in life and, correspondingly, in their professional climate. The rates of attrition, notoriously high among women attorneys and young lawyers,[3] could decrease as firms adopt remote working as a more common option. Remote working poses some challenges, such as to the multi-jurisdictional practice of law and cybersecurity. But these are challenges the...