By Douglas Quenqua May 12, 2015 2:42 pm
Of the many
rewards associated with becoming a lawyer — wealth, status, stimulating
work — day-to-day happiness has never been high on the list. Perhaps, a
new study suggests, that is because lawyers and law students are
focusing on the wrong rewards.
Researchers who
surveyed 6,200 lawyers about their jobs and health found that the
factors most frequently associated with success in the legal field, such
as high income or a partner-track job at a prestigious firm, had almost
zero correlation with happiness and well-being. However, lawyers in
public-service jobs who made the least money, like public defenders or
Legal Aid attorneys, were most likely to report being happy.
Lawyers in
public-service jobs also drank less alcohol than their higher-income
peers. And, despite the large gap in affluence, the two groups reported
about equal overall satisfaction with their lives.
Making partner, the
ultimate gold ring at many firms, does not appear to pay off in greater
happiness, either. Junior partners reported well-being that was
identical to that of senior associates, who were paid 62 percent less,
according to the study, which was published this week in the George Washington Law Review.
“Law students are
famous for busting their buns to make high grades, sometimes at the
expense of health and relationships, thinking, ‘Later I’ll be happy,
because the American dream will be mine,’ ” said Lawrence S. Krieger, a
law professor at Florida State University and an author of the study.
“Nice, except it doesn’t work.”
The problem with the
more prestigious jobs, said Mr. Krieger, is that they do not provide
feelings of competence, autonomy or connection to others — three pillars
of self-determination theory, the psychological model of human
happiness on which the study was based. Public-service jobs do.
Struggles with mental health have long plagued the legal profession. A landmark Johns Hopkins study in 1990 found that lawyers were 3.6 times as likely as non-lawyers to suffer from depression, putting them at greater risk than people in any other occupation. In December, Yale Law School released a study that said 70 percent of students there who responded to a survey were affected by mental health issues.
Other research has linked the legal profession to higher rates of substance abuse. In some cases, these struggles have made the news: In a recent six-month stretch in Florida, three Broward County judges were arrested on charges of driving under the influence.
From 1999 to 2007,
lawyers were 54 percent more likely to commit suicide than people in
other professions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. And in 2014, CNN reported that 15 Kentucky lawyers had committed suicide since 2010.
Why lawyers are
susceptible to such dangers is a matter of debate, although unhappiness
with the work itself — long hours toiling for demanding clients — is
often cited as a possible cause, particularly for people who entered law
school with dreams of high-stakes, cinematic courtroom battles.
“I thought I wanted to
be a litigator for reasons that showed a misunderstanding of what
litigators do,” said Todd D. Peterson, a law professor at George Washington University
who left his job as a partner at a Washington law firm after becoming
disillusioned. “The job was unfulfilling to me because I didn’t find it
meaningful.” Today, Mr. Peterson is at the forefront of a movement to
help law students avoid the mistakes he made.
Others say the job
requires an unhealthy degree of cynicism. “Research shows that an
optimistic outlook is good for your mental health,” said Patricia
Spataro, director of the New York State Lawyer Assistance Program, a
resource for attorneys with mental health concerns. “But lawyers are
trained to always look for the worst-case scenario. They benefit more
from being pessimistic, and that takes a toll.”
And then there is the
public hostility. “People just seem to hate lawyers,” Ms. Spataro said.
“There are thousands of prominent websites for lawyer jokes. That’s just
horrific.” Case in point: Many of the more than 3,000 comments on the
CNN article about lawyer suicides applauded the trend. The comments are
no longer visible in the link to the online article.
For Larry Zimmerman, a
now-retired lawyer from Albany, jumping from a position in the New York
State attorney general’s office to a lucrative job in private practice
worsened his problems with alcohol.
“Suddenly I was
dealing with some very significant money and very demanding clients and
high stakes,” he said. “I enjoyed what I was doing, and I was good at
it, but I was terrified almost all the time.” Before he sought help, Mr.
Zimmerman said, he was drinking a pint of vodka a day and relying on
junior lawyers to do most of his work.
To help people like
Mr. Zimmerman, most state bar associations or court systems have
assistance programs that can refer lawyers to counseling or
rehabilitation services. More recently, the work of people like Mr.
Krieger has inspired law schools to develop programs that might head off
such problems.
In 2012, Mr. Peterson
instituted a voluntary program at George Washington University that aims
to help law students make better decisions about what kind of law, if
any, they want to practice. Students in the program meet with practicing
lawyers to learn about their day-to-day lives. The program also has a
mental health component, providing techniques for handling stress and
remaining positive.
“We’re helping
students figure out why they’re in law school and where they want to
be,” Mr. Peterson said. “So instead of just working to get the best
possible grades so they can send out 500 résumés in their third year and
hope that some law firm hires them, they are learning about themselves
and why one part of the law might be more appealing to them than
another.”
But the pressure to be
hired by a big-name firm is so strongly ingrained in law school
culture, one George Washington University student said, that even those
who enroll with the intention of performing public service often find
themselves redirected.
“It’s a very real
pressure in law school,” Helen Clemens, a law student, said. “It comes
from all kinds of avenues, but mostly I would say it just comes from the
people surrounding you. If everyone is talking about leaders from our
school who have gotten jobs at a really prestigious firm, the assumption
is that we all should be trying to work at a similar place.”
In 2013, the
University of New Mexico Law School overhauled a mandatory freshman
course to more closely resemble the George Washington University
program. “A lot of people go to law school because they don’t know what
to do with their lives,” said Nathalie Martin, an associate dean there.
“We’re trying to direct them to a field we think they would enjoy.”
Law schools at
Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas and the University of
Colorado also have professional development programs that focus on
student well-being.
By helping students
refine their goals, teachers like Mr. Peterson hope to reverse the tide
of unhappiness among lawyers. But he acknowledges that it will not be
simple.
“There are certainly
some folks here at the law school whose initial impression was that the
program was kind of touchy-feely,” he said, “and there are students who
think even an hour away from reading for their courses they’re going to
be graded in is too much.”
“But I think people
understand that we need to do something for our students,” he added,
“that we have a moral obligation to help them deal with all of these
issues.”
Source: The New York Times
Source: The New York Times
