| How to be Happy: A Practical Guide for Lawyers By Bill RogersNational April/May 2005 Some people think “happy lawyer” is an oxymoron. But the truth is that lawyers can be content and even delighted with the lives they lead, if they adopt the right attitudes and practices. Here is a seven-point guide to finding real happiness and fulfillment within the legal profession. When Chicago lawyer Benjamin Sells came home from work one evening, he had a dramatically revealing conversation with his wife. “Her car was acting up,” Sells recalls. “She took it to the garage. I asked her what the mechanic had said. She told me, thinking that was the end of it. But then I started.” Sells proceeded to question his wife: Had she asked the mechanic about the car’s rattle? No, she said. Okay, Sells continued — when the mechanic said it was the fuel injector, did he say it was a common problem? Or was it more serious? A design flaw? She replied that she hadn’t made those inquires. Sells started to ask her yet another question, but she cut him off, exclaiming: “You’re cross-examining me!” This story, which is told on the first page of Sells’ widely read 1994 book, The Soul of the Law, illustrates a common problem: it can be very difficult to just stop “thinking like a lawyer.” Even after she’s done with her work for the day, work isn’t yet done with her. The lawyer spends her days digging for facts and issues, and then, upon arriving home, finds herself treating family members like opposing counsel. An inability to keep the “lawyer persona” from spilling over into domestic life is an occupational hazard for practitioners. Lawyers face other challenges as well, such as absurdly long work hours, failed expectations, and a tendency toward pessimism. It’s no wonder that study after study has shown that lawyers are at particularly high risk of falling into misery. What generates these negative outcomes? There are as many answers as there are lawyers, but much of the literature on the subject suggests two common sources:
Most lawyers are already fully aware of these phenomena, which have been well documented in CLEs, speeches and articles. Indeed, many lawyers today assume that a degree of unhappiness is simply their lot of life — that it’s part of the price of being a lawyer. But that’s simply not true. Nobody passed a law that says lawyers have to be miserable, and there’s nothing inherent in the job that demands it. There are happy lawyers out there, and you can be become one of them. Here are seven points to guide you towards unprecedented happiness in your life as a lawyer. 1. Put it in perspective The Johns Hopkins report found that when compared to other specific job categories, lawyers’ major depression risk was 3.6 times greater than average. Moreover, the incidence of major depression in the general population at the time was only 3% to 5%, while the rate among lawyers was 10%. While that is a clearly unfortunate fact, and requires action by the profession, it is also true that 90% of lawyers have escaped this fate. In other words, lawyers should not treat serious unhappiness as an unavoidable fact of their working lives. The next step, then, is to actively seek out happiness. Start by reasserting your non-lawyer side. 2. Shift out of lawyer-gear Visualization techniques can help, says Keeva, suggesting that even ten minutes’ concentrated effort to change gears at the end of the workday is time well spent. Lawyers with young children might adopt what he calls “enforced silliness.” On your way home, listen to a child’s CD, preferably something that has significance to your kids. “Go ahead,” he says. “Let go of grown-up concerns and sing along with abandon.” Keeva adds that “there are as many ways to make the work-home transition as there are busy lawyers who need to make it. The important thing is to be aware that you do need to make it. Your family, friends and significant others need it too.” 3. Choose your own model “As late as the mid-1980s,” he notes, “even associates in large New York firms were often not expected to bill more that 1,800 hours annually. Today, many firms would consider these ranges acceptable only for partners or associates who had died midway through the year.” Even in Canada, large-firm lawyers are usually expected to bill upwards of 2,000 hours a year. Setting aside the debate over the billable hour itself (See “Time’s up!” National, March 2005), what’s important is that lawyers recognize that this is only one business model for a legal career There are countless others — in private practice, the public sector, corporate departments, academia, and more — and every lawyer has the right to choose a path commensurate with his own goals and priorities. There is no one standard model for lawyering. Professor Jean Wallace, a University of Calgary sociologist who studies lawyers’ job stress and job satisfaction, points out that “big firms have the business to support [their targets]. They can basically run themselves the way they want. If you won’t work there, there are 1,000 people lined up outside the door who will.” Each to their own. 4. Reshape your expectations “Instead they find, particularly in big law firms, that there’s a lot more emphasis on billing quotas, generating a client base, keeping track of your time. That ends up being really disappointing and frustrating.” Although lawyers can reshape their expectations at any point during their careers, it’s usually young lawyers who have the toughest adjustment. Indeed, Darrell Bricker, President of Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs, reports that a 2004 Ipsos-Reid survey for the CBA found young lawyers grappling with the realization that “what they thought being a lawyer is turns out not to be what being a lawyer is all about. And the first few years out of law school are the toughest.” On the positive side, however, “if they get over this period, they get happier. The happiest lawyers are in the prime of their careers.” Setting realistic expectations goes hand-in-hand with choosing your own lawyering model. 5. Control the dark side The trouble, of course, is that professional pessimism doesn’t make you a happy person. Lawyers who see how badly things might turn out for their clients can also see how badly things might turn out for themselves. Self-esteem becomes a major, if undetected, problem. The solution? You must vigilantly argue against your pessimistic self. Seligman suggests that when a lawyer experiences thoughts such as “I’ll never make partner,” or “I always mess up my statements of claim,” she should imagine them spoken by another person, an enemy who wants to make her life miserable. Then she must marshal evidence against them. This technique is based on “cognitive therapy,” whose goal is not to make you into a Pollyanna who thinks everything is great, but rather to restore accuracy to thoughts that have become unrealistically catastrophic. Think of it as an on-going mental factum, arguing against despair. You’re better than you think you are. 6. Make use of nothing Some call it meditation, mindfulness, prayer or even Zen. It can be very calming and restorative to just settle in on and appreciate the present moment. But it takes work. University of Massachusetts Medical School professor Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn suggests emptying your mind of thoughts as you focus on breathing. Concentrate on the present moment. As thoughts inevitably appear in your mind, take note of them. Then, without judging them, let them go, like clouds passing in the sky. It may sound weird, but it works. Once you learn to be “mindful” in the moment, you can switch it on and off, as a weapon against stress. 7. Listen and be grateful He further suggests that lawyers cultivate gratitude: “I’ve tried my best to figure out what, if anything, is a common denominator of happy lawyers,” says Keeva. “The closest thing I’ve found is a sense of gratitude. It’s a great counterbalance for less charitable mindsets, which tend to be an occupational hazard in law practice. “If you take a few minutes to think about what makes you feel grateful, you come wholly into the present moment,” he explains. “You simply can’t find the feeling of gratitude except in the present moment. And you come to see the ways in which you’re connected to your life, to other people, and to your work. I know it sounds touchy-feely, but I’ve certainly found it to be true.” The choice is yours
Jumping ship altogether — leaving the law — might be the right option for some, although if you leave, you might find the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. But for most lawyers, this role is a gift, one that should not be turned down lightly and one that allows “Lawyers have many things to be grateful for,” says Keeva: “the acuity of their own minds, and the skills that that makes possible; being able to have an impact on their communities and on individuals’ lives; and the fact that they can earn a good living for themselves and their families. Such things are easy to take for granted. And not taking them for granted makes all the difference.” Bill Rogers is a freelance legal writer based in Toronto. This article first appeared in the April/May 2005 edition of National, the magazine of the Canadian Bar Association (www.cba.org/national). Copyright 2005 Bill Rogers and National Magazine. Reprinted with permission.
Legal Profession Assistance Conference (LPAC) |Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) | Lawyers Assistance Program of British Columbia (BCLAP) | Nova Scotia Lawyers Assistance Program (NSLAP) | Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) | The Lawyers Assistance Program (LINK) | The Alberta Lawyers Assistance Program | Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (Saskatchewan) | The Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company (LawPRO) | Law Practice Consulting |
||||
