Lawyer burnout: why it happens, and how to prevent it

In 2010, when I was a finance lawyer at a large firm, I went through a catastrophic burnout. It simmered for several years and came to a boil when I collapsed, crying inconsolably, in the arrival hall of a French airport late on a Friday night.

When I share this, the response is rarely one of surprise. Burnout is widely considered the price of entry for working in the legal profession.

Many lawyers are struggling: data gathered by LawCare in the UK in 2021 shows 42% of lawyers are in burnout. A recent study found that suicides by lawyers are 91 percent more likely to be attributed to job stress than other suicides.

"Burnout is widely considered the price of entry for working in the legal profession."

Law firms pay a lot of lip service to the importance of concepts like work-life balance and mental health, while doing little to address the root causes of lawyer burnout. In light of recent high-profile instances of lawyers ending their own lives in the UK and Australia, you might hope we are reaching some kind of tipping point. Perhaps one where the ‘positive and lasting change’ promised by managing partners is more than an all-staff email encouraging use of a mental health hotline.

The toll lawyer burnout takes

The cost of lawyer burnout comes at multiple levels: firms lose approximately 10% in staffing costs due to employee mental health, with estimates of the cost of employee turnover to firms in the US alone running to US$9.1 billion.

Individual lawyers pay a substantial toll, with recovery from the physical and emotional impact of burnout taking anywhere from three months to several years, and many lawyers leaving the profession as a result.

Lawyer burnout has a societal cost, too. Given its devastating impact on cognitive abilities and professional efficacy, the impact on the healthy operation and rigor of the justice system is difficult to overstate.

Burnout prevention is a complex matter for all organizations and industries, and the legal profession throws a few extra curveballs. So, what will it take to end lawyer burnout?

Before we look at solutions, let’s first unpack burnout and its root causes, then zoom in on the specific causes for lawyers and why so little seems to change in the legal profession. Finally, we’ll look at how senior leaders can start to create a burnout-free law firm culture.

1. Defining burnout

In 2019, the World Health Organization defined burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress characterized by three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy. The WHO identified burnout as an “occupational phenomenon”, so, while we might experience chronic stress due to experiences in other facets of our lives — from personal relationships to geopolitical crises — burnout is a work issue.

According to decades of research, burnout is primarily caused by organizational factors such as an unmanageable workload, toxic workplace culture, a lack of job control and under-resourcing. However, there are a few additional factors that make the legal profession different to most.

2. The additional challenges faced in the legal profession

The lived experience of lawyers varies significantly. The day-to-day work life for a criminal defense lawyer in the Bronx will look vastly different to that of in-house counsel for Shell in Nigeria, a family lawyer in regional Spain, or an M&A associate at a global firm. However, the following are aspects specific to the legal profession — and particularly to law firms — that drive the kind of chronic workplace stress that ends in burnout.

(a) Excessive hours

The average lawyer works 49.7 hours per week, with hours increasing for those working in large firms. In many fields, 18-hour days and 80-hour weeks are not exceptional. This system makes sense for firms from a profit perspective. Having ten junior associates working 80-hour weeks is cheaper than having 20 junior lawyers working 40-hour weeks, driving profits up for the partners.

(b) Chronically excessive workload

Lawyers routinely have too much to do. In part, this stems from a lack of control over what you do, at which pace, when and how, particularly for junior lawyers. It also results from the normalization of overwork which starts in law school, with students ‘pulling all-nighters’ and focusing excessively, even obsessively, on getting high grades with the hope of landing a graduate role at one of the top firms.

(c) Billable hours

The billable hour has been commonly used in the legal profession since around 1960. Recently, arguments against the billable hour structure have grown more vocal. Lawyers characterize it as an administrative nightmare and a huge disincentive to efficiency — plus, it causes headaches for clients, too.

According to Sara Carnegie, Director of the International Bar Association’s Legal Policy & Research Unit, unless the profession as a whole de-emphasizes the importance of the billable hour, burnout will remain a persistent issue.

(d) Cut-throat, ‘tough it out’ culture

Many law firms cultivate a cut-throat, survival-of-the-fittest environment. With firms structured such that only a limited number of junior lawyers climb the ladder to partnership, the model seems designed to eject lawyers by the time they hit mid-career.

Lawyers are expected to meet the clients’ needs at all costs, causing them to subjugate their own wellbeing. The culture in the legal profession promotes unhealthy coping mechanisms and discourages sharing or seeking help. As a recent article observes, “this ‘sink or swim’ mentality and stigma surrounding seeking help… may create a toxic work environment that contributes to the high rates of suicidal ideation in the legal profession.”

(e) High job demands and low decision latitude

Job demand refers to the aspects of a role that require physical or cognitive effort to be accomplished. Decision latitude means an individual’s perceived capacity to control their work, role in decisions and use of skills.

When we experience high job demand and low decision latitude, as so often happens in the legal profession, we are more likely to damage our health and morale. This correlates with my own experience as a junior lawyer: an almost constant sense of having far too much to do, and no control over any aspect of how I spent my days and nights at the firm.

(f) Lack of psychological safety

Law firms harbor environments in which people feel unwilling to speak up. In a recent survey by the International Bar Association, 41 per cent of lawyers said they would not discuss mental wellbeing concerns with their employer for fear it may have a negative impact on their career. This amounts to a lack of psychological safety which negatively impact team outcomes and diminishes individuals’ self-confidence and engagement — and makes lawyers more likely to burn out.

(g) Over-engagement and overcommitment

Engaged employees care about their work and the performance of the company. When people are engaged in what they do, they show far lower rates of burnout. However, things become dangerous when engagement veers towards obsession, with a study of French lawyers finding that over-engaged lawyers are more likely to burn out.

In a similar vein, overcommitment involves a desire to control and an inability to disconnect from work. Research shows that overcommitment is a coping mechanism for high-stress environments that rely on approval, esteem, and attention to detail, such as the legal profession, with excessive commitment to work forming a precursor to burnout.

(h) Lawyers are (necessarily) pessimistic

While pessimism has been shown to have negative implications for many professions and human endeavors, research reveals “a surprising correlation between pessimism and success in law school.” Lawyers are trained from the get-go to be cautious, prudent, skeptical and risk-averse to ensure that the advice they give their clients will lead to foreseeable and positive outcomes.

While students in other disciplines might collaborate on projects focused on innovation and creativity, law students are taught critical analysis, error avoidance, precision and risk mitigation. For lawyers, this is a helpful skillset. However, a negative or pessimistic mindset is a major risk factor for unhappiness and depression — as well as burnout.

(i) Adversarial law is inherently combative

The adversarial legal system is structured around the resolution of conflict between two parties. The zero-sum nature of the legal system leads to an ‘us vs. them’ and ‘win at all costs’ mentality. As Seligman et al. put it, “lawyers are trained to be aggressive and competitive precisely because they must win the litigation game. This training, because it is fueled by negative emotions, can be a source of lawyer demoralization, even if it fulfils a social function.” This must-win mindset permeates the profession.

(j) Lawyers care

It might seem counterintuitive and perhaps even controversial to say, but most lawyers truly care about the outcome of what they do and are highly driven to achieve the best outcome for their clients, whether it’s at a divorce court in Boise or a syndicate financing in Dubai. This emotional investment in outcomes which are ultimately beyond their control can, over time, form an additional layer of chronic stress.

3. Why is there no change to culture in the legal profession?

With these additional layers of chronic stress in the legal profession, it is easy to see how lawyer burnout has become normalized. And yet the costs to firms and the profession itself are enormous. Why is so little being done to meaningfully reduce burnout among lawyers?

Senior leaders have no incentive to change.

Law firms earn their partners an enormous amount of money. The very culture that unravels lawyer wellbeing is the same one that makes law firm partners some of the wealthiest people around.

Law firms are siloes.

Law firm departments and the partners within them often operate as separate entities, making the collective effort required for meaningful change challenging.

Lawyers don’t trust each other.

The competitive environment in law firms undercuts trust, which inhibits genuine collaboration.

Everyone is too busy.

When pretty much everyone in the firm is working 80 hours a week to meet endless urgent client needs, systemic change is inevitably deprioritized.

“It’s just how it is.”

The prevailing narrative from senior leaders amounts to “I did my dues in this system, don’t be a snowflake.”

Policies exist, they’re just not being used.

There is often a dissonance between firm policies (i.e., parental leave, sick leave, flexible working) and what is allowed by partners in practice.

Lack of good leadership by partners.

Partners are generally excellent lawyers — few, however, are natural born leaders. While some may receive management training upon their appointment to the role, most do not. As such, they often lack the skills and capabilities to improve firm culture and drive structural change.

Lawyers are failure and risk averse.

Law is a detail-oriented profession where small mistakes can be catastrophic and one moment’s distraction could land your client in jail. This gives rise to a strong fear of failure and exceptionally risk-averse behavior.

4. What can be done: solutions for leaders

As new generations enter the legal profession, the tide appears to be shifting. Approximately 90% of lawyers surveyed for the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers 2021 report said there are firms they would refuse to work for, regardless of pay, because they believe the working culture would impact their wellbeing.

This corroborates an empirical study of happiness among lawyers in the US, which found that internal and psychological conditions have a much greater impact on lawyer wellbeing than external factors, such as salary or status, and that lawyers are happiest when their needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness and motivation are met by their workplace. So, what can leaders do to create a working culture that uplifts, rather than decimates, lawyer wellbeing?

1. Set policies that support your people. And adhere to those policies.

Create and enforce policies that support lawyer wellbeing, including parental leave, the right to disconnect and the right to work flexibly. Commit to pay equity and report pay data transparently. Ensure firm-wide clarity on how to report breaches of policy, including the reporting of bullying and harassment. Make sure there are clearly mapped processes to facilitate consequences for such breaches. Ensure senior leaders use these policies, to role model healthy behavior.

2. Empower leaders to support people.

As lawyers grow in their career, give them the training they need to become great people managers as well as great lawyers. According to an International Bar Association study, 82% of legal institutions say they take mental wellbeing seriously, but just 16% provide training to senior management.

Upon promotion to senior associate, provide 3 to 6-month part-time management and leadership training (to be done within working hours). When someone is appointed to the partnership, provide the same for 12 months.

3. Set and stick to healthy working hours.

Firms need to take a hard line in ensuring lawyers are adequately resourced to complete what is expected of them within the hours set out in their contract. Paying lawyers for overtime is not an acceptable alternative in the long term — to get adequate rest and recuperation, and foster a healthy, balanced self-identity, lawyers need to spend time away from the desk. An occasional bump is natural, but in those instances, every hour of overtime must be 100% compensated in time off.

4. Remove billable hour targets.

An increasing number of firms are finding other ways to monitor productivity with no drop in profitability. Swedish firm Mannheimer Swartling, for example, removed billable hours targets, with managing partner Jan Dernestam explaining in an International Bar Association article, “We don’t want our associates to focus only on billable work — we want them to be just as engaged on marketing, pitches, pro bono.”

The firm registers time spent on matters at the firm level rather than individual level, so not even partners have access to individual data. There are alternative ways to measure productivity — find one that works for your firm.

5. Shift to value billing where possible.

Some firms are now shifting to value billing and other models which are more akin to billing practices by large consultancy firms. For experienced lawyers, creating accurate fee estimates is a reasonably straightforward process, and software is available to help. For future-minded firms, generative AI can have an important role to play here. Firms might start by shifting to value billing in one department, working in close consultation with clients in advance to optimize migration to the new system.

6. Provide mental health support.

Offer free, confidential and anonymous access to therapists and psychologists to lawyers at all levels. In addition, provide group training to help young lawyers build the skills they need to create a sustainable career — including emotional intelligence, mindful communication, self-awareness, burnout prevention and more.

7. Provide team training to improve psychological safety (and more).

Provide stress management training that helps teams improve their leadership skills together, building team psychological safety, trust and collaboration as well as individual outcomes such as increased self-awareness and confidence.

8. Engage experts in lawyer burnout.

If you want to make meaningful change but are not sure where to start, engage support from an expert who understands the idiosyncrasies of the legal profession to help create a shared language, deeper psychological safety and meaningful change at your firm.

9. Ensure senior leadership is on board.

As with all change, success stands or falls with senior leadership buy-in. Having partners genuinely, meaningfully involved in the process, role modeling behaviors and leading by example, is key to changing firm culture.

Equip senior leaders with the data, insight and information they need to not only understand why culture change is so important, but to understand why it’s in their own and the firm’s interest that they start making this change now.

Shifting law firm culture will require a significant change in mindset and approach on the part of individual lawyers, judges, other legal professionals, clients and the profession as a collective. It will take courage, curiosity and a resolute commitment to improvement.

With an increase in the regulation of lawyer wellbeing as well as psychosocial hazards in the workplace, this change will soon be essential. Smart firms — and smart leaders — will get ahead of the curve.

Curious to know more about embedding wellbeing and healthy stress management practices for your firm? Reach out.