Wellness Now!

Michael 1 Comment

Sung to the tune of a song heard this time of year:

“We need a little wellness now!”

Actually, with Festivus approaching, I should’ve gone with:

Wellness Now!**

  *****************************

I’m concerned for the profession.  Whether responding to inquiries or screening complaints, a message has emerged over the past 6 weeks: tension is rising & nerves are frayed. I’ve seen it in many contexts:

  • A rise in incivility between lawyers on different sides of a matter.
  • Increased tension between lawyers and their clients.
  • Lawyers from multiple practice areas convinced that theirs is the busiest, their clients the most insistent, and their work-induced stress levels the highest.
  • Lawyers from practices areas that are significantly less busy than prior to the pandemic convinced that their work-induced stress levels are the highest.

Most noticeably, the message emerges in the form of more and more lawyers contacting me to ask for tips & strategies to stay well.

That never used to happen.

Anecdotal? Small sample size? A blip that will revert to the mean?

I don’t know.

But it’s happening.

(I’ll leave for another post my thoughts on the fact that lawyers are reaching out even though they know I still screen disciplinary complaints.)

Today, in response to what I perceive to be a profession-wide need for a little wellness, I decided to repost videos I recorded from the Garage Bar in May. I did so in conjunction with National Lawyer Well-Being Week.

Spurred by the joint efforts of the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, the ABA’s Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, and the Well-Being Committee of the ABA’s Law Practice Division, the week’s aim was “to raise awareness and encourage action across the profession to improve well-being for lawyers and their support teams.”  The organizers assigned a different theme for each day of the week.  For each theme, I posted a video.

Yes, if you watch all five, it’s 40 minutes of CLE in the new “wellness” category.  But the point isn’t to make progress towards the CLE requirement.  The point is to progress – however incrementally – down the path towards improved wellness.

Beginning now.

National Lawyer Well-Being Week Videos

** I’m aware that “Serenity Now!” is first heard in a different episode than the one in which Festivus is celebrated. My point was the connection. So, if you’ve already emailed me to suggest a mistake, I will challenge you to feats of strength. Actually, I won’t.  Instead, I’ll air my grievances. I’d need a Festivus Miracle to perform a feat of strength.

Serenity

One thought on “Wellness Now!”

  1. Hi: good post. One solution: judges need to be more pro-active. Example: I got a motion for judgment on the pleadings in a civil case recently from a prominent law firm. The first 15 pages presented the defendants’ side, repeatedly making personal attacks on my clients. I was contemplating how to respond—the first 15 had nothing to do with the legal issues of judgment on the pleadings, but, what do I do? File a motion to strike? Respond to the attacks? We had a telephone conference with Judge Teachout, and the first thing she said was that “Ms. Bucknam does not need to respond to the first 15 pages of the Defendants’ motion.” Done. My wellness meter went up, and the problem was solved. Deb

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