Wellness Wednesday

Experiment in Well-Being! Even “mini” experiments might be good for you!

Michael Leave a comment

Next week is Well-Being Week in Law (WWIL).  This year’s theme:

The theme “embodies two key ideas: (1) a clean slate to start/restart our well-being action plans and (2) behavior change toward greater well-being.”

I’m focusing on the word “start.” The website is chock full of activities designed to spur a reboot. However, as I blogged last week, the goal shouldn’t be to choose an activity that gives us something to do during WWIL.  Rather, the goal should be to find something that will serve as a starting point towards building healthy habits with which we engage long after WWIL concludes.

To that end, each day during WWIL will focus on a discreate component of well-being.  In turn, each day’s programming will include activities designed “to support sustainable change.”  Specifically, “Well-Being Mini Experiments to try out each day that may spark insight and inspiration to make long-term, positive change.”

Call me an optimist, but anything that “may spark insight and inspiration to make long-term positive change” seems like a good thing!

For each day’s theme and suggested “Mini-Experiments,” go here.  There are SO MANY to choose from!  From using the acronym “DREAM” to improve your sleep, to trying something new, to engaging in “Bursts of Benevolence,” to the benefits of adding even the tiniest bit of variety to your daily routine.  There’s something for everyone.

Please consider trying even just one mini-experiment. 

Who knows?

If you do, maybe by the time next year’s WWIL rolls around, you’ll have made well-being a habit.

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Wellness Wednesday: Try Positive Self-Talk

Michael 1 Comment

Last week, I encouraged people to make well-being a habit.  I did so in the context of next month’s  Well-Being Week in Law and the dozens of activities that the organizers recommend for those looking to improve their well-being.

Of course, with so many choices, it can be difficult to decide where to start.  To the extent that well-being starts within, and that each of us is (at least partly) responsible for our own well-being, one way to begin might be this: by being nicer to yourself. 

Cynthia Sharp and Rebecca Howlett run The Legal Burnout Solution.  Cindy and Becky are fantastic resources on issues related to well-being.  Earlier this year, they posted A Guide to Self-Compassion for Lawyers.  Early in the post, they wrote:

  • “While our client duties necessitate that a competent lawyer approach the practice of law with care and empathy for those we serve, many of us find it difficult to extend this same level of compassion to ourselves.”

I agree 100%.  Indeed, my experience is that many lawyers are their own worst critic.  Why?  I don’t know.  Honestly, knowing why is beyond the scope of what I do. Maybe it’s human nature.  Maybe it’s imposter syndrome.[1]  I don’t know.

What I do know is that Becky & Cindy’s posts includes three “practical steps for cultivating self-compassion.”  Two are mindfulness meditation and practicing gratitude.  Each is an excellent tip.[2]  However, I want to focus on the third: positive self-talk.

Discussing the importance of positive self-talk, Becky and Cindy shared the story of a lawyer named Briana.

  • “After struggling for months with depression and burnout, Brianna confided in a legal mentor about her feelings, including her increasingly negative self-talk. Brianna says it all clicked when her mentor asked her how she would approach a friend going through a similar situation. ‘Suddenly, it was like a light bulb went off. I would never talk to a friend the way I was treating myself.’”

Bingo! 

My guess is that many of us can relate. I can.  Just a few weeks ago I was upset with a run that left me thinking “what is wrong with you Mike? Why can’t you run like you used to run? Get tougher!” Then, I realized that I’d never say the same to a friend who expressed discouragement with a race result. Ever since, I’ve noticed small, incremental improvement.  All because I decided to talk to myself like I would to a friend.

For more on adding positive self-talk to your repertoire, check out Becky and Cindy’s post.

As always, let’s be careful out there.

[1] Other posts on imposter syndrome include Engage Intellectually. And, you are not impostor and Venue, The Electric Slide, and Imposter Syndrome.

[2] In January, I posted Wellness Wednesday: Practicing Gratitude Can Improve Your Well-Being.  Among other things, I’m grateful that there are people like Becky & Cindy working to improve the profession!

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Habitual Well-Being

Michael 2 Comments

If you only have time to read one line today, let it be this: consider making well-being a habit.

Now, for anyone with time for more, the rest of the story.

Well-Being Week in Law (WWIL) begins on May 6. From the website, it’s “aim . . . is to raise awareness about mental health and encourage action and innovation across the profession all year-round to improve well-being.”  The emphasis on “all year-round” is mine.  That’s because my hope continues to be that legal professionals make well-being a habit, not just something in which to dabble for a few days in May.

As a coach and runner, I’ve long believed not only in the importance of developing good habits but also in the notion that whatever we do – whether good or bad – we get good at it. For example, almost six years ago, I posted Make Wellness A Habit.[1]  Here’s an excerpt:

“As most of you know, I used to coach high school basketball.  Any coach will tell you this: whatever you do every day in practice, that’s probably what your team will be good at doing.  If you shoot a lot, your team will probably shoot well.  If you work a lot on plays against a zone defense, your team will probably execute its zone offense well.  If you do a little of a lot, but not a lot of any one thing, your team will probably be okay at a lot, but not very good at much of anything.

The same goes for incorporating wellness and mindfulness into your workplace.  If you want wellness and mindfulness to be part of your workplace culture, you must practice them.  Not just talk about wellness for 50 minutes at the firm retreat.  Not just mention mindfulness at every other staff meeting.  But do them.

Every. Single. Day.“

In other words, improvement happens when working to improve becomes a habit.[2]

Of course, making something a habit can be difficult.  Which brings me back to WWIL.  And, again, I’ll turn to the WWIL website:

  • “This year’s overall theme is Well-Being Reboot: A Fresh Start for Positive Change. It embodies two key ideas: (1) a clean slate to start/restart our well-being action plans and (2) behavior change toward greater well-being.”

With respect to “fresh starts,” the organizers write:

  • “Fresh starts make us feel like we can turn the page on our past failures. They also give us a chance to diagnose the reasons why our new habits aren’t sticking. This research inspired our WWIL theme. Many of us make well-being resolutions in January. By May, if our busy lives have gotten in the way of our big intentions, we may benefit from a reboot. We’d like to think of WWIL as a Well-Being New Year. We can put our failures behind us and celebrate a fresh start for building the healthy lives we really want.”

That is, WWIL’s “reboot” theme gives all of us who have dabbled in wellbeing but not yet made it a habit a chance to start anew.

Each day during WWIL focuses on a discrete aspect of well-being.

The website is chock full of tips to address each day’s focus.  Tips that, if made into habits, will improve your well-being.

So, back to the opening line: consider making well-being a habit.  

Look at the tips.  I’m sure you can find one that interests you.  Would one (or more) for each day be good?  Yes. But even just one – from even just one of the days — will be a great start.  From there, make it habit.

Indeed, if charged with looking out for your own well-being, may you plead guilty to being a habitual offender.

As always, let’s be careful out there

[1] I just noticed that I posted it on July 18.  That’s my birthday. (Cancers rock! Cancer doesn’t. Trust me – I know both to be true.) Anyhow, for the life of me, I cannot imagine what made me think that celebrating my birthday by working on a well-being blog was good for my well-being!

[2] For more, check out Healthline’s Habits Matter More Than You Might Think – These Tips Can Help The Good Ones Stick or MindTools and The Power of Good Habits.

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Wellness Wednesday: Practicing Gratitude Can Improve Your Well-Being

Michael 1 Comment

In last Friday’s post, I shared my resolution to express gratitude more often in 2024. I included a link on how to do so that is not directly related to the legal profession. Today, I write to follow-up with a message from a lawyer regarding Friday’s column, as well as to share a link to a blog post on practicing gratitude by two attorneys who are among the leading voices on lawyer well-being.

Practicing gratitude can be difficult. Both as lawyers and in our personal lives, we often find ourselves in situations where it is hard to discern anything for which to be thankful.

But remember – you can do hard things 

Indeed, one Vermont lawyer is practicing what I preached. Here’s the lawyer’s response to the thoughts I shared last week on gratitude:

  • “I love the reminder about gratitude! I’ve been thinking about that topic myself. Lately, when I’m complaining about something in my head and notice I’m doing it, I stop complaining and think, ‘Thank you.’ I don’t yet know what I’m thankful for – I just say it. Then something pops into my head, usually a reverse of whatever I’ve been complaining about in my head. For example, I was grumpy about going to work recently, and I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to go deal with other people’s problems.’ I noticed the grumbling and then thought, ‘Thank you.’ Then, after I thought thank you, this popped into my head: ‘Thank you that I have a job that matters. Thank you that I can help people with things they really need. Thank you I get to serve my community.’ It sounds hokey, but it’s often quite effective.”

I love it!  And it is NOT hokey! Indeed, when it comes to employing strategies to improve well-being, NOTHING that is effective is hokey. 

Rebecca Howlett and Cynthia Sharp are lawyers who together founded The Legal Burnout Solution.  Their website is a fantastic resource for material related to well-being in the legal profession. (Full disclosure: last September, Becky and Cindy had me as a guest on their podcast. It’s here.)

In December of 2022, the ABA Journal published The Legal Burnout Solution: How to Improve Well-Being Through Gratitude. In the article, Becky and Cindy provide an overview of the “several realms in which scientists have shown the correlation between a gratitude practice and positive outcomes on our physical and mental health.” They go on to provide tips on “cultivating gratitude.”  I recommend reading the post and considering whether to take up (or maybe add to those you already employ) even one of the suggested practices. As Becky and Cindy conclude:

  • “As you do these gratitude practices, notice how your body and mind feel and focus on feelings of appreciation and thankfulness for all the blessings and abundance in your life. Strive to take this feeling and state of being with you as you go on with your day or drift off to sleep. Even instituting one of these practices on a consistent basis can lead to significant, positive effects on your overall health and well-being.”

Might it be hard?  Yes.  But again, you can do hard things.

As always, let’s be careful out there.

PS:  We’re almost up to 50 legal professionals who have taken The Well-Being Pledge.  To join them, all you have to do is email me!

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Wellness Wednesday: A Simple Pledge

Michael

Family first! Happy Birthday Dad!

Now, on to business.

The ABA Well-Being Pledge launched in 2018.  Adopted to “challenge the status quo,” the pledge self-describes as a “campaign of innovation to improve the substance abuse and mental health landscape in the legal community.”  Pledges agree to support a 7-point framework that was designed to “reduce substance abuse disorders and mental health distress in the legal community.”  The pledge and the 7-point framework can be found here.

I think the ABA Pledge is fantastic and I fully support the important work done by those who conceived of it.  Among them, Patrick Krill, one of the leading voices on issues related to the well-being of the legal profession.  A few weeks ago, Patrick shared his thoughts on the pledge’s anniversary in this post for the ABA Journal.[1] I encourage Vermont’s legal professionals to review the pledge and to consider taking it.

That said, and perhaps spurred by my effort to use the 7 Cs of Legal Ethics to simplify the Rules of Professional Conduct, I’ve wondered if a pared down version of the pledge might be more to Vermont’s scale.  I think the answer is “yes.”  Here’s what I propose for Vermont. 

  1. I pledge to look out for my own well- framework being.
  2. I pledge to look out for the well-being of colleagues in Vermont’s legal community.

If you agree, email me and I’ll add your name to this blog’s newest page.

For more information on how to look out for your own well-being and the well-being of colleagues, visit my resources page.  I’m a big fan of the ABA’s Well-Being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers, as well as its companion, the Well-Being Toolkit in a Nutshell: 80 tips for Lawyer Thriving.

Be kind to yourself.  Be kind to others.

Peace.

PS:  a few weeks ago, in footnote 3 to this post, I remarked that I might use my chemo sessions to post pictures reminiscent of the social media phenomenon “first day of grade ___.”  From Monday, here’s Chemo: First Day of Round 2.

[1] Patrick noted: “Now, as we look ahead to 2024 and beyond, we find no shortage of looming stressors and ongoing problems that continue to threaten our mental health and diminish our well-being. Life is changing, but it isn’t getting easier. As a result, the five-year anniversary of the pledge marks an important and appropriate time to simultaneously celebrate the progress the campaign has enabled while redoubling our efforts and committing to do more.”  In other words, our work continues.  Indeed, as I wrote in We’ve Only Just Begun to Begin, Patrick and I share the same sentiment in a related context.  

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Wellness Wednesday: I have cancer.

Michael 22 Comments

This post is news that I’ve been reluctant to share.  Alas, to the extent I can use it to encourage legal professionals who are facing behavioral health issues to seek assistance, it’s time that I share the news. And, in that it relates wellness & well-being, there’s no better time to post than while it’s still Wednesday.

Cognizant of my frequent harping on the duty to provide candid legal advice regardless of the fact that such candor might not be palatable to the client, I’ll be quick to the point: I have pancreatic cancer.

Late summer digestive issues led to a September 25 appointment with my primary care physician. Results from blood and urine tests led to a September 27 CT scan that revealed a mass growing on the head of my pancreas.  An October 5 biopsy confirmed malignant pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

I’m fully aware of the history associated with the diagnosis. I do not allow discussion thereof. Anyone who wants to discuss or dwell upon the negative is free to do so elsewhere.  For my fight, I choose relentless hope, optimism, and positivity.  Traits that I am fortunate to access as a result of my faith, family, and friends.

That’s that.  I’ll leave my treatment plan to this footnote.[1] 

I realize that pancreatic cancer is not the same as dealing with a behavioral health issue. Still, as I’ll explain, I am convinced that the “wellness” aspect of my work as bar counsel has helped to equip me for the fight.  I’d like to use this platform to share how it has done so and, in the process, encourage anyone who needs to do so to ask for help.

In early 2020, I learned of Well-Being Week in Law.  In May, the profession devotes each day of a week to one of the 5 different dimensions of our overall well-being: physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, and emotional.[2]  Tonight, I focus on the emotional and social.

Since my diagnosis, I’ve not once asked why.  The cancer doesn’t care why!!  More importantly, every second spent wondering why is a second not spent fighting the fight. In other words, asking why leaves me right where the disease wants me: not in the fight. 

On this front, my approach flows from the work I’ve done on emotional well-being.  On the day dedicated to the topic during 2020 Well-Being Week in Law, I posted this video. It draws heavily from my 2017 post W.I.N Your 3-feet of Influence. 

In sum, bad things are going to happen to us. We can’t always control that. We can, however, always control our reactions to the bad things. Indeed, that’s what’s important now: controlling what we can control.  In my case, that includes relying on my faith, family, and friends to assist and enable me to fight with hope, positivity, and optimism.

I am well aware that society reacts differently to diseases like mine than to diseases of the mind.  Nevertheless, if you are fighting alcohol, drugs, or a mental health issue, my point remains: asking “why?” is not what’s important now.  What’s important now is knowing that it is okay to ask for help, help is available, and help is available in a way that is decoupled from the disciplinary process. 

Remember: your anxiety, your stress, your drink or drug of choice?  They don’t want you in the fight.  What’s important now is that you join the fight.  Reach out.  We will help you get started and won’t spend a second judging your reasons for asking.

Social well-being is another dimension of our overall well-being. In 2020, I posted Social Well-Being: Communities, Connections, Hope. In it, I urged people to forge connections that become communities. I argued that, among other things and at their best, communities inspire their members to hope.

Earlier in this post, I mentioned my faith, family, and friends. Together, they nourish the optimism and positivity that I bring to my fight. That is, my faith, family, and friends are what inspire and enable me to hope. And, at their core, what are faith, family, and friends?  Types of communities.

Find a community. It could be the lawyers who work in your practice area. Or people who share a common interest.  Or people who’ve lived through what you’re living.  Whatever, find one. It will be a source of hope.

More importantly, every single one of us knows someone who has withdrawn from one of our communities.  Whether from the office’s culture, the legal profession, or one of the many non-legal communities to which we belong: church groups, running clubs, etc. I’m not talking about those who withdrew due to a lack of time or interest. I’m talking about those who withdraw involuntarily as a result of an alcohol, drug, or mental health issue.

Reach out to the people who’ve involuntarily withdrawn or who are teetering on the edge. Knowing that you care will provide them with hope. Perhaps just enough hope to enable them to seek the help that is okay to seek and that is available without recourse to the disciplinary process.

I realize that this post was about me.  I’m not asking for anything.  Rather, my intent is to encourage even one person who is coping with a disease deemed less acceptable than mine to seek help. Like the pancreas, the mind is a body part. There is no shame in asking for help to treat an injured body part.

Thank you for your consideration.[3]

Oh, November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. For more info, including tips on early detection, visit PanCan.Org.

[1] First, huge shout out to the Hematology & Oncology Unit at University of Vermont Cancer Center.  Competence personified!! The mass is borderline resectable. That means that once shrunk it can be removed surgically.  My case is closer to resectable than non-resectable. Which is good.  I’m also lucky in that, to date, there is no sign that any cancer has spread beyond the pancreas. The plan is 8-12 cycles of chemo.  I started chemo yesterday.  I’m on FOLFIRINOX.  Each cycle is 14 days.  On the first day of the cycle, I spend 7 hours receiving an infusion at the chemo lab at UVM.  The infusion is via a chest port that was installed a few weeks ago.  When I leave, I do so with a parting gift: a fanny pack full of Folfirinox.  The fanny pack is connected by tube to the chest port. 46 hours after leaving, I go back, and the fanny pack is unhooked. Then, the remainder of the 14-day cycle passes without infusions.  Repeat 8 to 12 times. 

[2]My posts & videos related to Well-Being Week in Law are here.

[3] The fact that I have 8-12 cycles of chemo made me think of the “first day of grade ___” social media posts.  In order, this post’s pictures are Chemo Cycle 1: leaving home; Chemo Cycle 1: arriving for treatment; and Chemo Cycle 3: moment first drop of chemo is infused. 

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Wellness Wednesday: A Positive Approach

Michael 2 Comments

Yesterday’s trip home from Boston was a big for me. 

First, it was during the drive that I committed to sharing my thoughts on the Taco Bell petition. Fewer than 24 hours after going live, the post is already one of the more well-received in the history of Ethical Grounds.

Second, on the way back, I stopped in Montpelier to present a wellness seminar for the Washington County Bar Association.  The discussion reinvigorated me and left me convinced that our work on wellness is both work well done and work worth continuing to do.

Until meeting with the members of the WCBA, I’d been in a bit of a wellness rut.  In May and June, I presented several CLEs on the topic as lawyers hustled to satisfy their reporting obligation. I noticed a distinct wellness fatigue.  It manifested in remarks like:

  • “I’ll do wellness on my own, don’t force me to do it.“
  • ‘Talking about how unwell the profession is makes me worse, not better.”
  • “We listen to you tell us that wellness is so important, so how come we don’t get CLE credit for the things we do to take care of ourselves?”

Trust me, I get it. And I will do whatever anyone asks of me to amplify their concerns with the Court and MCLE Board.

What I won’t do is stop presenting on wellness & well-being.

I arrived at Café Noa (a great spot for a CLE) nervous that it’d be another vent session.  It wasn’t. Rather, it was an uplifting conversation that showed me that our work on wellness & well-being has resulted in a healthier bar. 

Examples:

  • The lawyer who observed that connecting wellness & well-being to the duty of competence has provided a platform that allows supervisors to remind staff and younger lawyers of the importance of self-care.
  • The lawyers who shared their strategies to combat work addiction – that is, strategies they’ve adopted to allow themselves truly to be present in whatever they’re doing when they’re away from work.
  • The many lawyers who, when I asked the group to identify the 5 pillars of our overall well-being, instantly responded “physical well-being.”  And, from there, the many more who shared the steps they’ve taken to incorporate physical well-being into their routines.
  • When I asked what another of the pillars might be, the lawyer who immediately replied, “emotional well-being.”  It’s my favorite of the pillars to discuss and we had a lively give & take on the importance of (1) recognizing that we will experience negative emotions; (2) identifying those emotions & accepting that it’s okay to experience them; and (3) realizing that while we cannot necessarily control what caused the negative emotion, we can always control our response thereto.

Those are but a smattering of the many inspiring comments that WCBA members shared.

Here’s how the discussion left me feeling.

Maybe some of the wellness fatigue has been my fault.  It’s not uncommon for me to harp on the sobering statistics and to share the saddest of stories.  I’d grow tired of me too.

Instead, what I should be doing is what the WCBA did yesterday.  We focused on the positive and shared thoughts on keeping ourselves well.  And “keeping ourselves well” is exactly what all this is supposed to be about.

On that, kudos to Sidney Collier.  When Sidney invited me to speak, she asked me to present the “positive side” of wellness. That’s not typical – usually offices and groups ask me to stress why wellness is so important. So, as requested, I do, using the startling statistics that reflect the extent to which behavioral health issues pervade the profession.

The positive approach was better.  Sid – thank you!  It’s the approach I plan to employ going forward.

Also, many thanks to Heather Devine.  Heather introduced me to the group yesterday and has long-supported not only my wellness work as bar counsel, but my own personal wellness efforts.  Heather is one of two lawyers whose encouragement resulted in the video chronicle of me teaching myself to make bread.  And here’s the follow-up video in which I begged not to be disbarred from the ranks of the bread makers for violations that were completely of my own doing and for which Heather is entirely blameless.

And, last but not least, thank you to the members of the WCBA who attended.  As of 12:29PM yesterday, I’d let doubt start to creep in.  It’s gone.  To learn about so many lawyers & legal professionals taking steps to improve their own health as well as the health of their colleagues & co-workers was inspiring.  Especially given that it wasn’t that long ago that yesterday’s discussion was one that we avoided — and one that by avoiding, we created too many statistics.

We’ve come a long way.  We’re healthier for it.  And there’s no reason that we should stop now.

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Improving wellness 10 minutes (and one small bite) at a time.

Michael

I present a lot of CLEs in May and June. Many of the seminars include a “wellness” component.  This year, I’ve noticed a new dynamic to the wellness discussion.

To be clear, we’re at a place where people agree that self-care and work-life balance are critically important to fending off the stress and anxiety that comes with the profession. That’s a good thing.  Unlike 5 years ago, when some grumbled that “wellness” isn’t part of legal ethics or professional responsibility, I never leave a wellness seminar worried about the reception to the message. 

But what I’ve noticed during the seminars is this.

Despite recognizing the need to look after their own well-being, many people expressed concern about finding the time to do so.  Demands on their time – whether work or personal – can be such that the thought of even trying to fit wellness into the schedule seems too daunting.

Until this week, my only response was to remind people something to the effect of “experts will tell you that you must find the time and that if you don’t, you’ll be at risk of your stress morphing into burnout.” A perfectly fair (and common) response is “Mike, easier said than done.”

Then, a few days ago, I stumbled across The Rule of 10: A Simple Training Tip That Will Change Your Running.  Writing for Trail Runner Magazine in May 2022, Nicholas Triolo explained:

“The Rule of 10 was something I first heard of while running through Portland, Oregon’s Forest Park with friend and decorated ultrarunner Jennifer Love. We were discussing motivation.

‘When nothing else seems to work,’ she said, ‘I call forth the Rule of 10.’

‘The Rule of 10?’ I said between labored breaths.

‘The Rule of 10.’ Love explained that, despite its simplicity, no matter what life brings you can nearly always complete ten minutes of activity. ‘If I’m ever feeling like I just can’t do a run, I always give myself ten minutes. And if, after ten minutes, I will want to quit, then I’ll turn my train around and stop running.’”

Triolo went on:

“The point was this: Whenever things feel heavy, think bite-sized, something author James Clear Clear is known for underscoring in his book, Atomic Habits (one of marathon world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge’s favorite books of all-time). ‘When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small,’ writes Clear. ‘Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you want to be.’”

What a great concept!

If incorporating wellness into your routine seems daunting, follow the advice from Triolo and Clear: think small, like bite-sized portions.  As Jennifer Love said to Triolo, I’m guessing you can always find 10 minutes.  Start there.  Small? Maybe.  But it’s ten more minutes than zero minutes.

As I drafted this blog, the message seemed familiar. Then, it struck me.

Five years ago I posted “Lawyer Wellness: resolve to find 6 minutes for yourself.”  In it, I referred to Jeena Cho, who has long been a leading voice in the attorney wellness movement. In 2018, the ABA Journal published Jeena’s Mindful Mediation: an achievable resolution for lawyer well-being.  As Jeena points out, even only 6 minutes per day can help to improve well-being.

Wait a minute . . . I just negotiated against myself!!! Only a few paragraphs ago I was suggesting that you find 10 minutes, and here I am down to 6!

Anyway, you get the point.

Does working on well-being seem daunting? It needn’t be.  Start small, with bite-sized portions.

Future You will thank You.

As always, let’s be careful out there.

RESOURCES

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Wellness Wednesday: Remembering John Webber

Michael 1 Comment

We lost another of the good ones.

John Webber passed away last week. John’s obituary highlights his many accomplishments, including his Ted Williams-esque feat of capturing the Triple Crown of bar presidencies: Rutland County Bar Association, Vermont Bar Association, and New England Bar Association.  A true giant of Vermont’s legal community, I’ll remember John for many qualities, most notably his steadfast commitment to both wellness and professionalism.

When it comes to the well-being of the Vermont legal profession, to call John a pioneer would be an understatement.  Long before any of us used or heard the phrase, John was “lawyer well-being.”  In 1986, he founded the Vermont Lawyers Assistance Program, an organization that he directed for many years.  Before and after it existed, John helped countless lawyers to address behavioral issues.

Think about that: 1986.

These days, we openly acknowledge the profession’s well-being (and lack thereof).  We’ve worked to destigmatize help-seeking behavior and to decouple assistance from discipline.  We’ve made clear that it’s okay to ask for help and that help is available.

Indeed, in one sense, recognizing and discussing the importance of wellness & well-being has become rather chic.

I was only in college, but I’m willing to bet it wasn’t too chic in 1986.

The progress we’ve made? The path we’re on now?  

John blazed the trail.  And he did so in an era that was far less receptive to the message. 

Thinking of John, I’m struck by an aspect of his efforts on behalf of fellow lawyers.

Today, we devote a lot of time and energy to systems and programs. To questions like:

  • who should provide the help?
  • how should we pay for it?
  • what type of programs qualify for wellness credit?

Yes.  These are important questions that John would want asked, debated, and answered.  But as we do, let’s not lose the forest for the trees. 

Before he started VTLAP, John helped lawyers in need.  He continued to do so after the program’s creation, sometimes even outside the very parameters he’d put in place.  In other words, John wasn’t driven by or wed to a particular system or program.  He was driven by a desire to help people.  John helped others when he could, however he could, because he could.

And that’s what’s important: helping others. 

So, as we continue to improve on the systems we have in place, let’s not lose sight of our objective. We’d do well to emulate John’s basic instinct to help others – even if there’s no formal process to follow when doing so.

Turning to professionalism, I met John in the early 2000s.  At the time, I was the disciplinary prosecutor and he occasionally represented lawyers who were under investigation. He was never anything but calm, kind, polite, and professional.

Now, maybe you’re thinking “of course he was Mike! He wanted to get the best outcome for his clients!”

I don’t doubt that he wanted the best for his clients.  But that’s not why John was always calm, kind, polite, and professional. 

John was that way because that was his way.  Trust me, I’m not the only one who noticed. 

In 2006, the American Inns of Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit selected John – from all the lawyers in the circuit — to receive the Professionalism Award.  Similarly, in 2009, the Vermont Bar Association honored John with its own Professionalism Award.

Again, it’s how John was.

I remember a particular visit to John’s office.  There to discuss misconduct allegations against one of his clients, we spent most of the meeting talking about one of John’s passions: sailing.  At the time, I didn’t know (or care) much about sailing.  Yet, as we chatted, I found myself more and more interested, enthralled by the depth of John’s interest and knowledge. Thinking back, I’m not sure that our discussion ever turned to the complaint that I was there to investigate!

Of course, I’m sure that it did.  But here’s my point.

Thanks to VBA President Andrew Manitsky’s leadership, the Vermont bar has renewed its focus on civility and professionalism. In response to a VBA survey on civility, and again at a well-attended CLE on the same topic, many lawyers reported a perception that we lawyers don’t chit chat with, mingle with, or engage in small talk with opposing counsel anymore. We talk about our cases, but that’s it. The perception being that it’s tougher to be uncivil when you know someone as a person.

Whether the topic was sailing or another of his interests, John excelled at the art of the chit chat. He had a genuine ability – and desire – to treat and to know opposing counsel as another human being.  Yes, a human being who had a job to do for their client, but a human being nonetheless. 

That’s professionalism.  And, again, it was John’s way.

As with wellness, when it comes to civility & professionalism, we’d do well to emulate John.  The next time (or several) that you find yourself in a discussion with opposing counsel, mix in some chit chat about something other than the case.  If you do, John will be smiling somewhere.  Hopefully somewhere with a perfect view of a Bruins run to the Stanley Cup.

To John Webber.  May his examples live on.

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Wellness Wednesday: We’ve only just begun to begin.

Michael 4 Comments

Note: this post references suicide and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, contact one of the numbers at the Vermont Suicide Helpline.  It’s okay to ask for help and help is available.

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I posted Lawyers Helping Lawyers on March 3, 2016.  My first ever post to address lawyer wellness & well-being, it introduced readers to the now well-known Hazelden Study that revealed “substantial and widespread levels of problem drinking and other behavioral health problems in the U.S. legal profession.”

Since then, Vermont’s legal community has done an admirable job promoting a healthier profession. Our work has been both big & small, running the gamut from the 2018 State Action Plan issued by the Vermont Commission on the Well-Being of the Legal Profession to the fact that we now (gasp!!) openly discuss wellness.

As well as we’ve done, we’ve only just begun.

If this sounds familiar, maybe it is.  In 2019, I posted Attorney Wellness: We’ve Only Just Begun. In it, I wrote:

“Last November, Above The Law posted Burnout, Flame Out, Or Timeout?  The post was spurred by the fact that a lawyer named Paul Rawlinson had “taken a leave of absence to recover from the sheer exhaustion of running the second-largest law firm in the world.” In the post, author James Goodnow pitched an argument I’ve often made, albeit in a way much more eloquently than I.  He wrote:

  • “If the classic answer to the increasing demands of the legal marketplace has been to get tougher, let me once again advocate for a new approach: getting ‘realer.’ We need to let go of the outdated concept of the inhuman, never-tired, always-working hero attorney and replace it with the vision of actual human beings, because that’s what we all are. We’re people, with physical and mental limitations, lives and families outside of work, and interests beyond briefing, drafting, and billing hours. We need to take better care of one another, at all levels, and take better care of ourselves.”

Flash forward to very sad news.  Paul Rawlinson, the attorney who took the leave of absence?  He died last Friday.  Above The Law reported on his passing.

Rawlinson’s death crystallized a thought that’s been nagging me since the State Action Plan issued: we’ve only just begun.

Have we raised awareness? Yes, we have, and it’s a damned good thing that we have.

But it’s not enough.”

Later in the same post, I cited to two sections that appear in the ABA’s Well-Being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers. 

The first:

“We are happiest and healthiest when we adopt healthy work habits and lifestyle choices. Importantly, though, we won’t be successful on our own. Well-being is a team sport.”

The second:

“This means that, if we truly desire to improve wellbeing, we can’t focus only on individual strategies like making lawyers more resilient to stress; it is equally important (if not more so) to focus on systemically improving our professional cultures to prevent problems from developing to begin with. We are interdependent in that our organizational and institutional cultures—to which we all contribute and which, in turn, shape us all—have a huge impact on our individual well-being. When our cultures support our well-being, we are better able to make good choices that allow us to thrive and be our best for our clients, colleagues, and organizations.”

Whew!

This has been a long-winded way of getting to today’s point: we’ve only begun to begin. We must continue to work to make the profession healthier. 

Last month, MDPI published Stress, Lonely, and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk.  The report details a study into the predictors of lawyer suicide risk.  Numerous outlets reported on the study, including Psychology Today, Reuters, Above The Law, and The ABA Journal. Here’s an excerpt from Psychology Today’s coverage:

“Until now, very little has been studied about the specific predictors of lawyer suicide risk. New research suggests that high levels of perceived stress, high levels of work overcommitment, loneliness, and being male are all significantly associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation among lawyers. Specifically, the risk of suicidal ideation was:

  • 2.2x higher among lawyers with high work overcommitment;
  • 1.6x higher among lawyers with an intermediate level of work overcommitment;
  • 2.8x more likely for lawyers who screened as lonely compared to those who did not screen as lonely;
  • 1.8x more likely for lawyers with a history of at least one mental illness diagnosis;
  • 22x more likely for those lawyers with high perceived stress;
  • 5.5x more likely for those with intermediate perceived stress.”

Patrick Krill is one of the study’s authors.  Following its release, The American Lawyer published Patrick’s commentary When Our Stress Becomes Dangerous.  I recommend reading it.  When I first read it, I was struck by this paragraph:

  • “To be fair and optimistic, it is important to note that meaningful efforts to improve mental health have been underway and gaining momentum in the legal profession for the last several years, and many dedicated individuals are doing excellent work. As someone whose earlier research and advocacy helped ignite the current push for improved wellbeing in the legal profession, I have sincere gratitude for the progress we’ve made. But I also know the goal line remains elusively far away, and often obscured by the more stubborn forces of inertia, maladaptive attitudes, entrenched business models and extrinsic motivations.”

This is the point that I was trying to make in 2019’s We’ve Only Just Begun.  I feel now like I did then. 

Earlier today I sent Patrick a message. Referring to the recent study, I asked:

  • “Would this be a fair takeaway? That, as good as it is that we are providing more resources (and understanding) to legal professionals who seek help for behavioral health issues, it’s as important that we start to address the root causes. For instance, unreasonable workload expectations.”

Patrick’s response included:

  • “Yes, that is absolutely a fair takeaway from the most recent study. It is important to take a dual approach of providing resources and addressing root causes. To date, the profession has really only been doing half of what is needed by providing resources.”

Here in Vermont, there’s good news: we have a map to help navigate the beginning of our journey down the second half of what’s needed.  That map is part of the 2018 Action Plan.  Specifically, it’s the report from the Commission’s Legal Employers Committee. 

Whether here or at seminars, I’ve often stated my appreciation for the Legal Employers Committee report.

In this post, I noted the positive response to the Committee’s recommendation that employers:

  • “Consider a policy that employees should not—apart from emergencies—check their work email during non-working hours. Moreover, employers should allow all legal professionals to set reasonable boundaries on responding to emails, for example, letting clients know that barring an emergency, they may not get an email response immediately, but the employee will respond within a certain period of time.”

In another post, I noted my support for this suggestion:

  • “In firms that impose billable hour quotas on attorneys, assess whether and how that quota system may be contributing to unproductive competition, excessive stress, and unhealthy work habits. In large firms, an anonymous survey may be the best way to assess this issue. In smaller firms, it can be done through simple observation. If a quota system appears to be encouraging unhealthy behavior and excessive stress, modify it, eliminate it, or consider alternatives.”

Most recently, I referenced the Legal Employers Committee in this post about a California study that found that lawyers who perceive their employers to value them for their human worth reported feeling healthier than lawyers who perceive their employers to value them as revenue-producers, if at all. I connected the study to the Legal Employers Committee’s conclusion that:

  • “Legal employers, meaning all entities that employ lawyers, paralegals and legal assistants, can play a pivotal role in promoting and maintaining lawyer well-being.”

Okay. Pause.

I feel like I’ve gone on far too long and have lost my point.  My point is this: we’ve only begun to begin.

Yes, helping those in need is great. And it’s great that we’ve started to destigmatize help-seeking behavior. And it’s great that we’ve started to decouple assistance from discipline.  And it’s great that we now provide resources and referrals to those in need.

But why wait until they’re in need? Let’s do more to keep the need from arising.  Let’s address unreasonable workloads and work expectations, inflexible scheduling, extreme incivility, and other “maladaptive attitudes and entrenched business models” that are harming members of the profession. 

And it’s got to be more than blog posts, social media posts, and CLE presentations. It requires action in your offices.  Action that is as easily begun as perusing either the Legal Employers Committee’s section of the 2018 State Action Plan, the ABA Well-Being Toolkit for Lawyers and Legal Employers, or the ABA Well-Being Toolkit Nutshell: 80 Tips For Lawyer Thriving.

There’s no better or more important time to begin than now.

Note: Patrick Krill is the speaker in one of the virtual CLE options that’s part of the VBA’s upcoming Mid-Year Meeting. Go here for more information on the meeting and Patrick’s seminar “Mental Health and Well-Being as a Strategic Priority for a Sustainable Profession.”

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