The elusive term “lawyer well-being” that we keep hearing is something we all want, but find difficult to attain and keep. For the past several years, organizations around the country have put increased focus on the health and wellness of lawyers after noticing we are losing too many great people from our profession because, while we focus on taking excellent care of others, we rarely do the same for ourselves. Being the masters of denial that we so often can be, it shows great progress that this topic is finally at the forefront of the industry. However, even though most people support the idea of improving lawyer well-being, figuring out how to make those changes, and making sure there is a coordinated effort between all areas of the industry, is difficult.
This year, the American Bar Association partnered with leaders in lawyer well-being from across the country to create a National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, which drafted a 73-page report titled “The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change.” The report provides recommendations on how to improve lawyer well-being across the industry to the different stakeholders in the legal profession: judges, regulators, legal employers, law schools, bar associations, and lawyer professional liability carriers. If you are looking for ways you can help, or things to suggest to your employer, find them in the report, located here.
The YLD prides itself on being a leader in this area, and the ABA report even identified the YLD’s Health and Wellness Committee (formerly the Quality of Life Committee) as a positive example of an organization actively caring for lawyer well-being. Even before the ABA report’s publication, the YLD had already implemented many of its recommendations, such as (i) sponsoring high-quality CLE programming on mental health and wellness topics (and offering them for free); (ii) creating other educational materials to support individual well-being; (iii) raising awareness amongst our members and law students of the Florida Lawyers Assistance Program; (iv) launching a lawyer well-being committee in our Health and Wellness Committee; (v) hosting an annual Health And Wellness Month in May; and (vi) modeling best practices within our own board.
The YLD’s Board of Governors promotes practices at our own meetings that we would like to extend to our affiliate bar associations and all young lawyers by hosting family-friendly meetings, practicing and raising awareness of wellness activities during our meetings (meditation, gratitude, group yoga, 5k runs, and so forth), raising money or supplies for the community, starting our meetings with a reminder of who we serve, and supporting initiatives that will help improve the lives of Florida’s young lawyers.
In fact, nearly every project the YLD undertakes seeks to reduce stress and improve the well-being of young attorneys, and are often the direct result of concerns identified by our constituents and brought to the attention of YLD leadership. Recent examples include, but are not limited to: (1) voting in favor of a military spouse rule currently pending approval by the Florida Supreme Court; (2) extensively lobbying and unanimously voting for the parental leave continuance rule and endorsing it for presentation at a national level before the ABA; (3) raising national awareness of gender bias issues through a survey and the ongoing development of solutions as a result; and (4) creating a website that provides step-by-step guidance on How To Start Your Own Law Firm that won First Place in 2015-2016 ABA’s Service to the Bar Awards of Achievement Program.
The YLD is currently working on another website that will streamline research by providing an easy-to-use search format with questions and answers for young lawyers on topics ranging from substantive law, ethics and Florida Bar requirements, to navigating life in a law firm, promoting yourself, and keeping your well-being in check at the same time. We hope that having a one-stop resource will reduce some of the challenges young attorneys face. Keep an eye out for this and other projects in line with the report’s recommendations in early 2018!
If you have any questions or ideas about how you can incorporate wellness into your daily life, how you can approach your employer with ideas to improve well-being at your workplace, or how your local bar affiliate can help improve lawyer well-being for your area, please reach out to your YLD representative.