You’ve probably heard it time and time again: being a lawyer is one of the most stressful jobs in the world. Considering that 1 in 5 lawyers are thinking about leaving the profession, there may be some truth to this claim. And with work-life balance among lawyers at a horrible low — a whopping 42% of those in the legal profession admit to working on weekends — it’s clear that the legal profession is in need of a serious change.
At the same time, the massive cost of a law degree makes lawyers think that they are stuck in the profession. The Education Data Initiative found that the average total cost of law school is $260,163. Because of this, 3 in 4 lawyers report feeling like they will never pay off their debt. This is why many lawyers feel obliged to stick with the job, even when they are suffering.
“However, this feeling of stuckness is based on one dangerous falsehood: that law firms must be miserable places to work in exchange for a paycheck,” remarks John Avi Socha, Chief Operating Officer for the Hemmat Law Group and host of the podcast “Gossip Without Prejudice.” “That’s simply not true. Not everything about your job will be fun — criminal defense cases are stressful, family law is emotional, and paperwork in basically any legal discipline is pretty boring. But that doesn’t mean we have to play into the long hours, high pressure, and burnout by default. Changing this status quo is in our hands.”
The challenges of being a lawyer
“The fact that the legal profession so often chooses suffering over compassion is frustrating and surprising,” Socha says. “Lawyers deal with people at some of the most sensitive times in their lives, so it might behoove us to ensure that the lawyers and staffers handling cases are at the top of their mental game. However, the legal system is rigid, as are the ways we run law firms and extract value from our associates.”
As Socha explains, in the legal profession, there is also a phenomenon known as compassion fatigue. The American Bar Association defines it as “the cumulative physical, emotional and psychological effect of exposure to traumatic stories or events when working in a helping capacity, combined with the strain and stress of everyday life.”
Socha remarks that lawyers suffer from compassion fatigue because of the emotional toll their clients’ cases and stories take on them. “The truth is that being stressed-out and unhappy as a lawyer is not just bad for the lawyer, but also their clients,” he says. “Lawyers who are unhappy are prone to poor communication, which is the number one reason clients end up feeling dissatisfied with their legal teams. And as we all know, no one is on their A-game when we are stressed out, meaning that stress can interfere with a lawyer’s performance.”
How law firms can change the culture of the legal profession
So, what can law firms do to approach this situation and make the legal profession better for lawyers and clients alike? Ultimately, this will require a fundamental change in the status quo, with process and cultural transformations that redefine the relationship lawyers have with their jobs and the profession as a whole.
“One of the most obvious ways a law firm can help change the culture of the legal profession is by focusing on redefining the role lawyers play in bringing value to our businesses,” Socha explains. “Traditionally, the billable hour has ensured that we as firm managers do not care how well a matter is completed, but rather, how much time was spent litigating it. This perspective guarantees a zero-sum examination of performance, where time spent away from the office is time definitionally wasted.”
Indeed, the legal service industry has monumental fixed costs. Margins are crushed by the necessity of hiring large numbers of staff, and lawyers are forced to bill the firm back into profitability. Now, with the advent of AI, managers have the option of augmenting legal professionals with massive force multipliers. A leaner machine means the stone does not need to be squeezed of all its blood.
“While it may seem like a stereotype, focusing your firm on serving the community can also make a big difference in your lawyers’ job satisfaction,” Socha says. After all, as with any line of work, lawyers are more content when they are passionate about their impact. “Many of the most successful lawyers are those that take on cases they believe in,” Socha adds. “By taking steps like allowing attorneys to take on pro bono work for cases they are passionate about, law firms can boost employee morale and allow employees to feel like their work is making a genuine difference in the world.”
Law firms can also benefit from providing mental health support — not only to their employees but also to their clients. The American Psychological Association reports that 81% of employees said that “how employers support mental health will be an important consideration for them when they look for future work.” That being said, it’s important to note that the cause of many lawyers’ mental health struggles is the fact that their clients want to vent to them about their case, and this is not healthy for the client or the attorney.
“It’s important to remember that lawyers are not skilled mental health professionals,” Socha notes. “They are not equipped with the skills needed to help their clients through mental health struggles, and their time is expensive. If a law firm can provide mental health support to its clients so that they have an actual, skilled mental health professional, this not only ensures that clients receive the help they need but also that lawyers are less burdened by the weight of their clients’ cases.”
The status quo of the legal profession, unfortunately, is based on an expectation that lawyers should have to suffer for their work. But that isn’t how it has to be, and law firms have the power to change it. “By making your law firm a place where lawyers can love to work, you can be a small but mighty part of a cultural transformation in the legal profession,” says Socha.
