1.03. Professionalism is more than just understanding the rules

When you think about what “professional responsibility” means, you probably think that it relates to your obligations to your client, to the court, and to the public.  And I will admit that for most of the course we will be talking about professional responsibility in those terms.  The reality, however, is that you also have obligations to yourself and to make sure that you are taking care of your mental and physical well-being.  The simple reality is that a healthy and happy lawyer is a more productive lawyer.  You need to get into good habits from day one in your practice.  The numbers here are shocking – a 2016 survey indicated that somewhere between 21 and 36 percent of lawyers qualify as problem drinkers and over 20 percent are struggling with some level of depression, anxiety, and stress.[1]  I am not going to lie, for most of you it will not be easy and at times it will be impossible to maintain ideal well-being because so many of your early work-life responsibilities are outside of your control.  However, it is important that you remain aware of the importance of work/life balance, to know when outside forces are negatively impacting your mental or physical health, and to know that there are resources available if you need it.  Here’s the reality:  mental health issues or substance abuse do not get better on their own and failure to deal with them early can cause more harm to you, your family, and your clients than if you addressed them early on.

[1] Ptrick Krill and Ryan Johnson, “The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys,” 10 J. Addiction Med. 46 (2016).