If you look five or 10 years down the road, the people entering the profession appear to have significantly worse mental health. I don’t expect the need to address these issues to abate.
— Law firm mental health consultant Patrick Krill, in comments given to Jenna Greene of Reuters on the need for law firms and legal employers to offer policies that will reduce lawyers’ stress and allow them to set meaningful work-life balance boundaries. Krill recently co-authored a study which found that highly stressed lawyers were 22 times more likely to experience thoughts of suicide.
(If you or someone you know is depressed and in need of help, please call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988) or a lawyer assistance program in your state. You can also get in touch with someone at the Lawyers Depression Project. Remember that you are loved. Please reach out if you need help.)
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
