Balancing the Scales: How Lawyers Can Cultivate Health and Well-Being
Overall stress levels for men, women, and children in our culture are at an all-time high. We know that chronic stress results in measurable decreases in cognitive functioning and increases in long-term life-threatening illnesses, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. There are very real consequences—I should know. After decades of pushing through stress, including people-pleasing, skipping sleep, overcommitting, and refusing to honor my own emotional and mental needs, I received a cancer diagnosis.
This article is a wake-up call for you, your colleagues, and your clients. For the legal industry, the call has been blaring for over a decade.
As business counselors, we are humans tasked with guiding other humans as well as corporations that have hundreds or thousands of humans working for them. How can we maintain our personal well-being while also handling the professional well-being of others?
The American Bar Association (ABA) and the state of Oregon have some thoughts on these matters. Let’s review quickly.
Where we started
In 2016, the stress, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse amongst legal professionals (judges, lawyers, law students, paralegals, and those who support such) was so apparent, the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) partnered with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation to conduct the landmark survey of over 16,000 legal professionals (the “Study”). The Study examined alcohol use, substance abuse, mental health issues, and help-seeking behaviors. It revealed concerning insights, such as over one fourth of participants reported mild to severe depression and nearly as many reporting using alcohol and drugs in a “problematic” manner. Needless to say, the numbers have increased over the last decade.
The Study results were so alarming that in September 2017, then-ABA President Hilarie Bass requested the ABA Board of Governors create a Presidential Working Group to examine and make recommendations regarding the current state of attorney mental health and substance use issues with an emphasis on helping legal employers support healthy work environments.
“The number of lawyers struggling with these [mental health and substance abuse] issues is shocking. It is up to our profession to identify solutions to assist those already suffering, as well as to minimize those who will have to address these issues in the future. Instead of being disheartened, we should view this information as a clarion call. We need to change.” wrote President Bass.
The Working Group released their seminal report, “The Path To Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change,” including over forty-four specific recommendations for judges, lawyers, legal employers, insurance carriers, law schools, bar associations, and legal regulators. As of February 2025, nearly every state has created their own well-being taskforce. Summits, conferences, and third-party institutes have emerged, and the legal industry appears to be truly committed to improving well-being.
Oregon’s Role
Oregon has been doing its part to address the well-being of lawyers. Here is a brief timeline of key events:
2018—The Oregon State Bar (OSB) and the Oregon Supreme Court adopted a continuing legal education requirement for mental health and substance use.
2019—The OSB and the Oregon Attorney Assistance Program (OAAP) hosted a first-of-its kind Wellness Summit.
2021—OSB’s House of Delegates approved Delegate Resolution No. 5, which directed a Conference of Well-Being Stakeholders.
2022—The Conference convened. During the conference, other Workgroups were formed to meet afterward and discuss topics such as structural impediments to well-being, reducing stigma, and lawyer education.
2023—The Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund composed a Legal Industry Well-Being Workgroup Report. As stated in the report, and most notably for business lawyers, one of the 2022 Workgroups identified the following as immediately actionable steps: “training in, and support of, well-being in the workplace, and [addressing] the disconnect from purpose and meaning in the work for many in the profession.”
Next steps
Despite the strides being made to improve well-being, our work continues, as the most commonly identified barriers to individual help-seeking in the legal profession remain at play, namely: (1) failure to recognize symptoms; (2) not knowing how to identify or access appropriate treatment or believing it to be a hassle to do so; (3) a culture’s negative attitude about such conditions; (4) fear of adverse reactions by others whose opinions are important; (5) feeling ashamed; (6) viewing help-seeking as a sign of weakness, having a strong preference for self-reliance, and/or having a tendency toward perfectionism; (7) fear of career repercussions; (8) concerns about confidentiality; (9) uncertainty about the quality of organizationally-provided therapists or otherwise doubting that treatment will be effective; and (10) lack of time in busy schedules.
Not surprisingly, lawyers seem universally reluctant to use OAPP services due to a distrust of complete confidentiality and the risks posed to individual positions and status of firms due to the very real stigma against seeking help for substance abuse and mental health struggles. Similarly, law students fear they may not even be accepted into a state bar should they admit to needing support.
Luckily, there have emerged truly neutral, confidential, and independent options for firms and individuals that are seeking help and are unwilling to risk potential disclosures—third party coaches and wellness assessment providers, such as the Institute For Well-Being In Law, are increasingly available.
Below are some initial steps that you can take as an individual or collectively with your firm:
Check-ins—If you are in a firm, encourage quarterly check-ins with staff to see how they feel about their caseload, the ability to voice their opinions, and overall efficacy. These small check-ins are proven to help staff feel important and heard within the firm culture.
Solos have a slightly more challenging feat, as accountability and support are key to achieving wellness. Seek out the assistance of a coach or group of peers to meet regularly, preferably without drinking alcohol as the focus of the event.
Take the pledge—The ABA Well-Being Taskforce released a pledge, which encourages firms and individuals to reflect upon their own well-being and the culture of their working environments. The pledge encourages attorneys and firms to review their values and work to bring their daily behavior in alignment with those values. Annually, the ABA requests a written submission of manifested action taken to achieve wellness goals, then publicizes pledge signatories. Most high-profile national firms have joined as signatories and re-commit annually. This simple act of self-reflection and accountability is the easiest way to commit to incorporating well-being into your practice.
The pledge is designed to be more than “lip service;” rather, it’s an attempt to get billable-hour-hungry attorneys to slow down and prioritize their own well-being. Having a trained advisor assess attorneys and conduct firm-wide value positions is critical to improving corporate culture, including providing reflective and wellness-centered advice to clients.
Play—Taking time away from the intellectual challenges of career pressures is one of the most effective ways to regulate one’s nervous system. Anything that gets your mind and body out of a highly anxious and pressured space for at least thirty minutes a day counts as play, from baseball to improv comedy to board games. From a physical standpoint, walking at least thirty minutes a day will lower cortisol levels and increase cardiovascular functioning, and some studies show even a 10-minute walk can result in cortisol reduction. If you need to take a walking meeting, do it.
Mindfulness Practices—Mindfulness includes allowing your mind to literally “let go” of thought and simply breathe. It’s harder than it sounds, and often beginners need some guidance. Luckily, you have an abundance of options—simply search for “mindfulness” in the app store on your handheld mobile device. Some of the most popular apps include JKZ Meditations, Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer. One of my favorite practices to listen to the Sharon Salzberg’s Metta Hour podcast while walking for thirty minutes daily. Just ten minutes of daily meditation is all it takes to change your see improvement in mood and cognitive functioning. These easy-to-incorporate apps can change your life and help you achieve your goals of the ABA pledge.
Retreats—For those who feel they are ready for a big shift, mindfulness retreats for lawyers are some of the absolute best opportunities to reflect on one’s mental and behavioral patterns while receiving support in beautiful locations around the world. Mental health CLE credits, which are now required for Oregon lawyers, are becoming increasingly available in the form of retreats. Multi-jurisdictional attorneys can often gain credit in multiple jurisdictions while also experiencing firsthand the difference mindfulness, self-reflective practices, and intentional journaling can have on day-to-day life. It’s one thing to read about wellness practices and an entirely different thing to have a personal experience.
In my personal wellness journey after receiving my cancer diagnosis, I was absolutely blown away to read study after study pointing to lifestyle changes as the greatest factor in reducing risks for not only cancer, but auto-immune disease, cardiac disease, and even Alzheimer’s. After prioritizing meditation, daily walking, mindful listening, and other wisdom practices, I personally experienced greater concentration, more enjoyment – even in the most stressful situations – greater sleep, and an overall deeper connection to family, friends, colleagues, and even acquaintances. Fundamentally, we owe our clients the best of ourselves. Personal wellness is critical to deliver that obligation.
BIO: Melissa Jaffe, Esq. is a licensed practicing attorney in California, Oregon, Washington, and soon, Hawaii. She was appointed to the 2024 Washington State Bar Association Wellness Taskforce and serves on the Executive Committees for the Oregon State Bar Business Law and Intellectual Property Law Sections in addition to serving as the Chair-Elect for the Washington State Bar Association’s Business Law Section Executive Committee. She is also the founder of the attorney wellness initiative Blissness School. Blissness School provides in-person retreats and online trainings to help with burnout, mental and physical health concerns, mindfulness trainings, and firm wellness assessments. Learn more here. Melissa has spent the past two decades studying meditation and mindfulness with Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s founder Jack Kornfield, Metta Hour’s Sharon Salzberg, and the late, great Ram Dass, formerly Richard Alpert of Harvard University.
