Capitalizing on Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case for Law Firms to Promote and Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being
![handle is hein.journals/vllalr65 and id is 371 raw text is:
2020]
CAPITALIZING ON HEALTHY LAWYERS: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR
LAW FIRMS TO PROMOTE AND PRIORITIZE LAWYER WELL-BEING
JARROD F. REICH*
This Article is the first to make the business case for firms to promote
and prioritize lawyer well-being. For more than three decades, quantita-
tive research has demonstrated that lawyers suffer from depression, anxi-
ety, and addiction far in excess of the general population. Since that time,
there have been many calls within and outside the profession for changes
to be made to promote, prioritize, and improve lawyer well-being, particu-
larly because many aspects of the current law school and law firm models
exacerbate mental health and addiction issues, as well as overall law stu-
dent and lawyer distress. These calls for change, made on moral and hu-
manitarian grounds, largely have been ignored; in fact, over the years the
pervasiveness of mental health and addiction issues within the profession
have persisted, if not increased. This Article argues that these moral- and
humanitarian-based calls for change have gone unheeded because law
firms have not had financial incentives to respond to them.
In making the business case for change, this Article argues that sys-
temic changes designed to support and resources to lawyers will avoid
costs associated with lawyer mental health and addiction issues and, more
importantly, create efficiencies that will increase firms' long-term financial
stability and growth. It demonstrates that this business case is especially
strong now in light of not only societal and generational factors, but also
changes within the profession itself well. As firms have begun to take in-
cremental steps to promote lawyer well-being, lasting and meaningful
change will further benefit firms' collective bottom lines as it will improve:
(1) performance, as clients are demanding efficiency in the way their mat-
ters are staffed and billed; (2) retention, as that creates efficiencies and
the continuous relationships demanded by clients; and (3) recruitment,
particularly as younger millennial and Generation Z lawyers-who priori-
tize mental health and well-being-enter the profession.
* Professor of Legal Writing and Lecturer in Law, University of Miami School
of Law. Former associate and counsel, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. The author is
grateful to Steve Armstrong, Sonya Bonneau, Dan Bowling, Bree Buchanan,
Danielle Gilson, Meghan Holtzman, David Jaffe, Larry Krieger, Patrick Krill, Todd
Peterson, Jeffrey Shulman, and Tim Terrell for their insightful comments on this
Article. The author additionally thanks Oliver Armas (Hogan Lovells), Sally King
(Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP), and Wendy Cartland and Linda Myers
(Kirkland & Ellis LLP) for discussing the innovative work their respective firms
have begun to undertake to promote the well-being of their employees. Special
thanks also to Sara Ellis and Jeremy McCabe for their excellent research assistance
and to the Georgetown University Law Center for the grants and administrative
support that made this Article possible.
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Capitalizing on Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case for Law Firms to Promote and Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being
Contact us for annual subscription options:
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