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| Jo-Anne Stark |
I have been struggling for years with the pressure of billable hours and working non-stop. My doctor recently prescribed an anti-depressant for me and something to help me sleep. I feel that I’ve made such incredible sacrifices to become a lawyer, only to find that I’m consumed by a career that is costing me everything. Is there any possible way I can have a career and not feel constantly burned out?
This is something I’m sure we have all heard before, and possibly felt ourselves. And that is reflected in the report on phase 1 of a two-year study conducted in Canada recently. It's almost overwhelming to unpack the findings in this report titled: Towards a Healthy and Sustainable Practice of Law in Canada. This is a wake-up call if I ever saw one.
The paper is literally filled with statistics and commentary from our profession. The profound impact on members is staggering and bleeds into so many aspects of a person’s life — their decision to have children, their mental health, impact on personal relationships and even suicidal ideation. About 24 per cent expressed they had thoughts of suicide as a direct result of the pressures from practising law, which is over double the national average!
As I approach my 30th year as a lawyer, I've seen it from every perspective: as a young articling student and lone female in a private law firm, to becoming in-house legal counsel, to working as an arbitrator and adjudicating cases, to establishing a legal division and becoming an executive in a national bank. And I was also a legal client in a long, drawn-out divorce. I experienced different levels of stress, anxiety and burnout in these roles — just like so many of you, I suspect.
Yet, we know that a healthy lawyer is not only happier, but more productive. It’s simply a matter of pivoting perspective — and finding a new and effective way to deliver legal services that ensures the legal provider is not sacrificing their health and wellness.
I can state, without a doubt, that legal coaching is truly a more civil way to practise law now — something I discovered about five years ago. The report states that one key to wellness is psychological detachment from the work; this is infinitely more possible when you are the coach and not directly representing the client in an adversarial role. You are no longer in the ring, fighting it out. You are on the sidelines, coaching the client from a safe distance; you are empowering the client by guiding them through the process and legal work. For some legal coaches, the transition to coaching has saved them from a lifetime of depression and distress. For others, legal coaching allowed them to remain in a profession helping others, instead of walking away completely due to the damage it was causing.
Legal coaching can also mean a move away from the billable hour conundrum — one that is discussed at length in the study. By offering coaching sessions for a fixed rate or a flat monthly fee, you are removing yourself from the stress of meeting billable hour targets and are in far more control over how you spend your work hours.
The study also talks about compassion satisfaction (gained from a sense of helping clients) versus compassion fatigue (which results in burnout and secondary traumatic stress); legal coaches I train express immense feelings of satisfaction when they work directly with clients on a regular basis to help them meet their personal goals. There is less risk of suffering from trauma or burnout because you are not directly involved in the client’s legal problem — you are the one helping them manage that problem! That shift in perspective has an impact that is quite phenomenal ... many legal coaches have expressed incredible levels of satisfaction as they coach self-represented litigants through their legal problems.
A more humane (and healthy!) way to practise law ... legal coaching!
Jo-Anne Stark, B.Comm., J.D., CLC, is the founding president of the non-profit Legal Coaches Association and author of Mastering the Art of Legal Coaching. Find her on LinkedIn.
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