TRUSTEES MESSAGE

Mindful Wellness

Back from the Brink: Attorney Health & Wellness

By Anne P. Keeton Freund, Freeze & Arnold A Legal Professional Association DBA Member-at-Large

Like many of you, my law school class at the University of Kentucky was small as classes go, about a third of the size of my high school class. Though small in number, we were mighty together, friendships forged in the winnowing furnace that is law school. There were the gunners, the top of the class, the kids who sat in the “zone of learning,” the kids who didn’t, the slackers, the peanut gallery. We were all different, but we were all in it together. Together we withstood Trusts and Estates (shudder the thought!), Con Law, Torts. We witnessed 9/11 and comforted each other through its aftermath. Together, we grieved the loss of a friend and classmate to an aneurysm our 3L year. And in February, together, we endured the loss of another classmate – a lawyer, a husband, a father, a friend to anyone who knew him. He killed himself. And no one saw it coming.

Friends, we are a profession on the precipice. Teetering on the brink between old idea(l)s of what it means to be a lawyer (long, long hours toiling in a darkened office, lit only by a solitary bulb, 1 no thought to the home fires or whether they were burning) and the new reality of double professional households, pressures of joint parenthood and partnership, electronic-age clients who expect wellthought-out, researched, evaluated responses in a nanosecond, not to mention the pressures of the marketplace. The change is apparent even over the course of my 17-year career. And what used to work in the past as coping mechanisms (and one might question whether they truly did work), simply don’t cut it in today’s fight or flight pace of living.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I’m tired of making it all work – 10 billable hour days and meal planning and prepping and pick up and drop off and “No, I have no idea where your shoes are. What do you mean you don’t have your shoes?!” 2 and school projects and … fill in the blank. It’s enough to push you over the edge. And it’s not just me. I dare say there are more than a few of you who feel the same way. Like you can’t catch your breath but desperately need air.

The issue is so acute that the ABA created a National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being in 2017, in part as a response to a study conducted by the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. 3 The study evaluated nearly 13,000 currently-practicing lawyers. Of those 13,000 attorneys, 21-

Dayton Bar Briefs April 2020 36% qualified as problem drinkers; 28% struggled with depression; 19% struggled with anxiety; and 23% struggled with stress. 4 Those numbers are real. Nearly one in three lawyers struggles with depression. Let that sink in next time you go out to drinks with your two best lawyer pals. Chances are, one of you is struggling. And it might very well be you. Or me.

Please don’t get me wrong. I love my job, and I love my profession. I love the people I work with, the challenges of my practice, the “thank you” from a relieved client. But I’ve come to the realization that at some point, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we face burnout that ripples outward to our clients, our colleagues, our firms, our families. The time to address these concerns, Friends, is now. Because if not now, then when?

Have no fear. The DBA is here to help. Enter the DBA Health & Wellness Working Group. In September of 2019, the Health & Wellness Working Group presented Attorney Wellness Month, featuring guided meditation during the Chancery Club Luncheon, CLE on Wellbeing Skills for the Effective Lawyer, and work-life balance advice from our very own Erin Rhinehart.

So what can you expect in 2020? Look for monthly articles and tips to improve your mental outlook and your physical health. We’ll feature local gyms, and even set up a class or two for you to try out. Also in the works are seminar(s) designed to help you learn how to step away from the fray. All with the goal to provide you with the tools you need to take those baby steps toward improving physical and mental well-being.

Step back from the brink, Friends. Breathe deeply. It’s a brave new world out there, but as the kids say, “You got this!” (And we’ve got your back.)

ENDNOTES:

1 You know the tv dramas I’m talking about. The ones where you wonder if the law firm has some rule about having any of the lights on after a certain hour. I mean, really. Turn on the lights, folks! 2 True story. Shoeless Joe Jackson, except at a basketball tournament, 45 minutes from home.