What they didn't teach you at law school: keeping mentally fit in your professional life

Back to European Regional Forum publications

Chris Owen, Co-Chair of the IBA European Regional Forum was recently invited by the Slovak Bar Association to give a talk on the subject of keeping mentally fit in your professional life. Chris began the talk by looking at the historical reluctance within the legal profession to talk about our own or other people’s mental wellbeing. It was not considered an appropriate subject of conversation. It was deemed to be a personal matter. Any attempt to discuss our individual experiences of stress and anxiety (and the emotional difficulties attached) went against the whole idea of lawyers as analytical, detached and professional.  

As a result, lawyers have dealt with the increasing pressures of the workplace without any training in how to support their own and their colleagues’ mental wellbeing. Young lawyers in particular remain reluctant to discuss the issue due to the fear of its impact on their careers and the stigma attached to mental illness.

Discussions on mental wellbeing at an institutional level (law schools, law firms, bar associations) have also traditionally been considered to be inappropriate. Results from a recent IBA Presidential Task Force Survey on attorney mental wellbeing highlighted the failure of law firms generally to provide effective support to their lawyers in relation to mental wellbeing issues. However, a significant improvement in the wellbeing of the lawyers could be achieved where effective support was provided.

Chris looked at the growing awareness (particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic) of the importance of mental wellbeing within the profession – both at an individual and institutional level. From an individual perspective, we need to invest time and effort on a daily basis to support our own mental ‘fitness’ and to create our own realistic mental fitness goals.

Some of the key takeaways from the talk includes:

1. What is mental fitness? Mental fitness has a number of features: an ability to embrace uncertainty and not resist it (eg, the challenge of Covid-19); the confidence to learn new skills by entering into and exploring our own ‘zone of discomfort’; the ability to respond skillfully to the psychological challenges we encounter on a daily basis; the determination to establish and enforce our ‘personal boundaries’ (whether they be digital, physical or psychological) and the ability to listen deeply and be present with ourselves and those around us.
2. The importance for our mental wellbeing of not getting continually distracted and stressed by the over-stimulated, digitalised and high intensity workplace in which so many lawyers work. This involved building our capacity to be present and engage with all that we encounter on a daily basis.
3. The role of kindness (both towards ourselves and others) in recognising our essential interconnectedness and interdependence with each other. As one of the attendees at the session put it, it is about communicating that even in a high-intensity, high-reward environment, ‘the concept of human dignity is still very much alive’.
4. The need to ‘make friends’ with our emotions (especially the negative ones): the law is inherently a very emotional profession whether it is dealing with difficult/traumatised clients or coping with the lifestyle of many lawyers. And yet lawyers have historically seen emotions as primitive and something to be suppressed. We are not used to connecting with our emotions and seeing them as a natural part of experience; they help us navigate our way through the challenges both in our professional and private lives. Our task is therefore not to suppress and dissociate ourselves from our emotions. Rather it is to accept them for what they are and, where necessary, reframe them.
5. The ultimate aim is to care for our own mental wellbeing and, in doing so, to build an emotionally healthy lifestyle that encourages a positive engagement with life. This ensures our ability to thrive as we face the challenges and opportunities that a career in the law represents. And in supporting our own mental fitness, we live longer, have better health, are more productive and have happier relationships. So there is a lot at stake!

Back to European Regional Forum publications