Health / Wellness

Lawyers And Their Pursuit Of Happiness

What are the causes of lawyers' unhappiness and are there any realistic ways to improve lawyers' happiness?

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A lot has been written about why lawyers tend to be unhappy. Unhappiness is so prevalent in the profession that there is a cottage industry devoted to improving lawyers’ lives. Unfortunately, some turn instead to substance abuse. Finally, others don’t do anything about it at all and usually take out their frustrations on the people they care about.

So what are the causes of lawyers’ unhappiness and are there any realistic ways to improve lawyers’ happiness?

There are numerous reasons for lawyers’ unhappiness but the most common ones are: incivility, career dissatisfaction, and stress.

Many have written about the incivility in the profession. A lot of times, they get it from opposing counsel who justify their actions in the name of zealous advocacy for their clients. Or in the case of government lawyers, they do it for the sake of upholding the law. But incivility also comes from judges and sometimes even their own clients.

While I sympathize, I just accepted that incivility is part of the profession, since our judicial dispute-resolution system is adversarial. The best way to deal with this is to not let opposing counsel get to you. And be prepared for any dirty trick opposing counsel may try to pull. They may yell at you, try to use your inexperience against you, or even threaten sanctions. But so long as you are prepared, you will be able to see through their smoke and mirrors.

Some lawyers are unhappy because their career path did not go the way they hoped. Usually these people are those who went to law school but did not really want to be lawyers. Also, many people who attended non-elite law schools did not get their dream job immediately after graduation. What likely happened was that they accepted any job that was available for the sake of obtaining work experience. And whatever job they did wind up getting became their careers because they couldn’t find anything else.

They hate their current job because it does not pay enough, they hate their clients, they don’t get any personal satisfaction or sense of fulfillment from their job, or usually all of the above.

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Some have eventually transitioned to their ideal practice area. But for others, making a change is difficult to impossible. The firm might be in a different city or state. Or the firm may pay less and it is not enough to pay for living expenses, particularly if they have to support a family.

Finally, stress is a major cause of unhappiness. There are many causes of stress: a toxic work environment, long work hours, and clients with unreasonable expectations or who are overly argumentative, to name a few.

So what can be done to improve happiness? There are many articles with general suggestions such as improving your diet, sleeping better, exercising, meditating, changing your mindset (whatever that means), etc. While these suggestions are helpful, they are only good for coping with your current unhappy environment. Also, it might take some time before any of the above starts to provide benefits. The truth is that dealing with unhappiness is difficult because happiness is unique to each individual.

A good starting point would be to figure out what it means to be happy. The dictionary defines happiness as a state of well being and contentment. That definition is vague and open to interpretation.

Some people interpret happiness as having a constant feeling of euphoric bliss. This is a very unrealistic goal to strive for. Some people have achieved this state but they are usually known by their medical term: heroin addicts. And their achievement is usually short-lived and comes at a great cost.

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Happiness can also mean a feeling of confidence and financial security. In 2010, there was a widely publicized study from Princeton University that concluded that people are at their optimum happiness level once they make $75,000 per year. Of course, this number likely does not apply in places like Manhattan or San Francisco. And student loans will also reduce happiness levels. But the overall point of the study seems to be that one does not need to make a massive amount of money to be happy. This study just gave everyone a number to use.

In my opinion, for many lawyers, being happy really means being better than their peers. This is because most lawyers tend to be competitive. They had to be in order to graduate at the top of their class in school. They also have to maintain an image of superiority not only to justify their additional education and debt, but to also look attractive to future clients and employers. They question themselves and their sacrifices when they see one of their Facebook friends purchase a Tesla Model X when all they did was run a small ice cream store for 10 years after graduating high school.

Once they honestly figure out what happiness means to them, they need to honestly assess whether they are willing to make the additional sacrifices to get where they want to go. As mentioned above, if happiness means getting the ideal job, the costs can be significant and may be impossible if they have family to support and do not come from privilege. And there is the possibility that they may fail, be in a worse situation financially, and still be unhappy.

And for some, happiness might mean leaving the law. It is certainly possible because there are many case studies of people leaving the legal profession in order to do something else.

While I won’t get into any details on any next steps, perhaps a consultation with a career counselor and mental health professional would be a good place to start.

Finally, a few people cannot be truly happy. To these people, being happy will eventually mean being lazy and complacent. These people thrive on conflict and will seek to profit from it.

There are many reasons why lawyers are unhappy. But there are also many ways individuals can achieve happiness. For some, it might require changing some habits. But for others, it will require a brutally honest assessment, substantial sacrifice, and willingness to accept the consequences of failure.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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