Legal News

In Down Times, Depression Taking Hold Among More Lawyers

By Ashby Jones

When we write about lawyers and unhappiness, we typically have a specific kind of unhappiness in mind. It’s more a restlessness than a deep despair, more a malaise or vague sense of dissatisfaction than an outright sadness. Whenever we write about this (which we and others tend to do with a certain amount of glibness), we do so with an unspoken assumption — that this category of unhappiness is entirely fixable — especially for big firm lawyers, what with their smarts and connections and hard-earned degrees. It’s just a matter of finding a new job or going part time or leaving the law altogether. Happiness exists just around the corner, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to get there.

But the unhappiness discussed in a National Law Journal story out today strikes an entirely different chord. The article, titled ‘Depression Among Attorneys Rises as Economy Sinks,” hints at something deeper, we think. The piece mentions several categories of lawyers, each of which seems to be wrestling with problems that don’t seem to have easy answers — young attorneys with crushing amounts of debt who can’t find a job, mid-level lawyers who’ve recently been laid off, lawyers close to retiring who’ve lost money and have to keep on working.

The growing pressure on attorneys was highlighted recently by the apparent suicide last week of Kilpatrick Stockton’s Mark Levy. Levy had reportedly been laid off from the firm.

“We don’t have empirical evidence that says the economy is to blame,” said Janet Piper Voss, executive director of the Illinois Lawyers’ Assistance Program, which helps attorneys deal with depression and substance abuse. “But that’s the sense we have. There is something different going on right now.”

Across the country, lawyer-support groups are seeing a serious uptick in activity, according to the story. The Lawyer Assistance Program of the State Bar of California had its largest number of cases ever in March and April — double the number it saw in January and February. The North Carolina Lawyer Assistance Program’s caseload has also gone up this year, said director W. Donald Carroll Jr.

According to the story, the Illinois program is about to add a second depression group, which is a weekly group therapy session for attorneys who have attempted suicide, said Susan Riegler, a psychologist and clinical director of the program. The second group is necessary because the original group has become too large.

“This really picked up in December,” Riegler said. “I was getting more people than ever calling me in tears. By and large, what I see is depression and a feeling that things won’t turn around, or I hear from people who had a lifestyle they can no longer afford.”

Reigler says that some attorneys who have lost their jobs face something of an identity crisis as well.

“People have always asked them, ‘What do you do?’ and they’ve said, ‘I’m a lawyer,’” she said. “When they lose that role in life, it’s pretty confusing.”

Carlton says that lawyers aren’t always the first to look for help during times of trouble. “Always being in control, not showing weakness and being assertive are not necessarily the characteristics that lend themselves to treating emotional problems,” he said. Asking for help and admitting weakness, he says, are keys to overcoming those problems.

LB Readers, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Illustration: Photos Et Cetera

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 05, 2009 (boomark / email).