Well-being in the Profession

The Challenge: Addressing the culture, policies, and practices that undermine mental health and satisfaction within the profession

The Rhode Center has highlighted the challenges of and possible solutions to the issue of well-being in the profession. Our work includes inviting speakers to expose students to the challenges of mental health among lawyers and synthesizing research that points to promising paths forward.

We are also working to accelerate the effort in different states to remove questions about mental health from bar admissions. Until recently, most states asked bar applicants whether they had been diagnosed with a mental health condition and whether they had received treatment. Many states still ask these questions, and in a recent survey of law students, 44% reported that the “[p]otential threat to bar admission” “discourag[ed]” them from seeking help with a mental health issue.

In the Spotlight

Mental Health Screening in Lawyer Licensing

Lawyers applying for the bar must answer sensitive questions about their mental health as a part of the bar's "moral character" assessment. Stakeholders have long questioned the propriety of this inquiry. Should such inquiries exist at all?

What's Ailing Lawyers?

Lawyers have higher rates of mental illness and substance abuse than most other professionals. This recorded program, based on the book Smacked, looks at why, and what we can do about it.

In the News

ABA Well-Being Pledge Gathers Steam, as Number of Firms Swells in 2 Years

The Lawyer, The Addict

Mental health, stress have one-in-four women lawyers mulling career change

Related Publications

White Paper: Mental Health Screening in Lawyer Licensing

Managing Stress, Grief, and Mental Health Challenges in the Legal Profession

Symposium: Mental Health and the Legal Profession

Additional Resources

ABA CampaignWell-Being Pledge
People, Professionals, and Profit Centers: The Connection between Lawyer Well-Being and Employer Values (Krill et al 2022)
Stress, drink, leave: An examination of gender-specific risk factors for mental health problems and attrition among licensed attorneys (Anker and Krill 2021)
Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy (Zimmerman 2020)
The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law (Levit and Linder 2010)
What Makes Lawyers Happy?: A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success (Krieger and Sheldon 2015)
Measuring Lawyer Well-Being Systematically: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey (Listokin and Noonan 2021)

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of surveyed law students reported that the “[p]otential threat to bar admission” “discourag[ed]” them from seeking help with a mental health issue. That figure was nearly 60% with respect to substance abuse. (Jaffe et al. 2022)

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Lawyers exhibit excess alcohol consumption twice as frequently as others with advanced professional degrees. Moreover, alcohol abuse in the legal profession has been getting worse—increasing dramatically over the last 15 years. (Listokin and Noonan 2021)

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One-quarter of women lawyers in California and DC contemplated leaving the profession due to mental health concerns, compared to 17% of men. (Anker and Krill 2021)

Aspiring lawyers should seek the health care they need. But if Kentucky continues to punish people who get help, many won’t. And one day, a law student will die after choosing self-help over medical care because he worried a Character and Fitness Committee would use that medical treatment against him—as Kentucky’s did against Jane Doe.

Legal academics take pride in working at the forefront of social change…We need now to turn more of our efforts toward our own profession, and to promote forms of practice that fulfill lawyers’ deepest needs and aspirations.