Daniel S. Bowling, IIISenior Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School Instructor in Applied Psychology, College of LPS, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Recession, Resilience, and the Psychology of

Law Practice: 2010

Lawyers – as a population – have higher career dissatisfaction, health issues, and psychological problems than other occupations

Recession has exacerbated, but not caused problem

Not spread evenly throughout the practice

Why is this, should anything be done about it, and if so, what?

“Do you think now that we are doing fewer illegal things we can scale back the legal department?”

Career dissatisfaction high NC Bar reports half its members want to

leave profession Cal. Bar reports only 29% satisfied U.Mich study of recent grads show

steadily decreasing satisfaction Tenn. Bar reports 41% not “engaged” Studies pre-date current recession

Most lawyers healthy and happy – but - law has highest rate of major depressive and anxiety disorders of 104 measured occupations

NIH shows abnormally high rate of suicide among lawyers

Begins in law school: 5% rate of depression among entering classes (normal); 40% report at least one major depression event

3X 2X 40%

Institutional Causes

Problems are not spread evenly throughout the profession

Most of the evidence to date from law schools and large law firms

Causal suggestions from research findings: “Paper Chase” in law school Lack of teamwork/engagement in

school/practice Hourly billing model How do I stop “thinking like a lawyer” at home? Competition for grades and billing Win/Lose justice model

Psych Causes: Do Lawyers Have Psych Causes: Do Lawyers Have Identifiable Personality Traits?Identifiable Personality Traits?

Optimism correlates with success in every profession except one – law

Competitiveness “Lone Wolf” Perfectionist Research shows all above traits

correlate with increased risk of psych disorders

But don’t these traits also make us good lawyers?

Recent academic field of “positive psychology” studies mental health of non-clinical population, and conducts research into mental disorder avoidance

Intensive academic focus at U Penn, Michigan, Harvard; application at

Emory Law School One of fastest growing areas in the social sciences

High rate of suicide and PTSD among soldiers during Irag/Afghanistan wars

Rates of divorce, substance abuse, anxiety and depression increased

Summer, 2009. Army Chief William Casey orders that all soldiers receive psychological training along with military training

Army has partnered with Penn Positive Psychology Center to incorporate “mental toughness training” into basic

3-year, $100 million effort Will train 1.1 soldiers and families in

resilience skills Why not develop a resilience program for lawyers?

Parallels between law practice and military

Similar individual psychological characteristics – “warrior mentality”

Institutional characteristics: High stress, failure not an option, up-or- out culture

Trial as Battle

King Leonidas, Esq.

Spartan warrior culture of the military

“Law is a jealous mistress” Only the mission/client

matter Self-sacrifice

United States Army believes so Productivity and job success

correlates with psychological well-being: institutions with happy people outperform

Ethical issues – how much psychological damage to practitioners/soldiers is to be accepted?

Optimism and life satisfaction can be empirically measured

We now have tools to help predict future problems with people

Optimism and depression avoidance can be learned

Scientifically-tested resilience training to increase well-being is now available

Conclusion: Research ongoing – more needed!

Empirical testing of interventions in firms, schools, and law departments

Psychological strengths assessment (VIA)

Resilience training specific to law Preventive counseling for at-risk

individuals – “depression shots” “Learned optimism” training Raised awareness at Bar and CLE levels

Questions?

Dan BowlingPositive Workplace Solutions, LLC

850-377-1400dabowling@gmail.com