Law Schools

Crushing Law School Debt Is Destroying Lawyers' Mental Health

Trigger warning: this is incredibly depressing.

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One of the harsh realities of law school that we don’t speak about quite often enough is student loans. The average law student is shouldered with six figures of debt upon graduation, and these heavy debt loads act as huge setbacks for new attorneys. Lawyers in the early stages of their careers are delaying marriages, putting off home-buying, and postponing or forgoing having children because of student loans. And, of course, law school debt is taking a horrific toll on their mental health.

According to a new report put together by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and the AccessLex Institute, student loans are weighing heavily on the minds of recent law school graduates. More than 1,000 lawyers in their first decade of practice participated in a YLD survey meant to gauge the impact debt played in their lives, and a negative impact on mental health became a common, unprompted theme among their responses.

Here are just a few responses to the open-ended question “Which of these ways, if any, has your total student loan debt affected your life?” that the study’s authors categorize as “difficult to read”:

After student loans and caring for my sickly parents, I have very little to have of my own. This means I am forever beholden to law firm work and feel like I will never be able to afford a home or have a family of my own. It’s too expensive. Additionally, there is anxiety that comes with the financial stress. For first-generation immigrants like myself, caring for extended family in a multigenerational household is challenging.

Constant financial stress. Inability to save. No safety net.

I have had immense life stress because my loans make it I [sic] almost impossible to enjoy my career. It wasn’t worth it even though I’m great at what I do and love the law.

I lie awake at night worried about whether I will be able to give my children the life my parents gave me, and whether I will ever know the feeling of true financial stability, which is what I was seeking when I went to law school.

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It turns out I hate being a lawyer but I can’t afford to do anything else. My mental health has aged me prematurely. I can’t afford to stay working in my area due to increased cost of living.

My mental health suffered due to the pressures of my loans.

Student loans made me hate the profession.

While some responses simply focus on anxiety, and depression, and stress (e.g., “massive depression”; “level of stress is unidentifiable”; “constant anxiety and stress about repayment”), this one sums up just how poorly some are doing:

I gave up on life.

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“This report is a call to action,” the study reads. “It is time to reevaluate our approach to student loan advocacy, come to understand the student loan problem is widespread among our newer attorneys, and take action. This is not just about numbers; it is about real people who are impacted by large sums of debt in often profound ways.”

So what can we do about a problem as huge as the collective debt that law school graduates are carrying? One suggestion is that the ABA help reduce the cost of legal education. While we’d love to see that plan come to fruition, we have a feeling it’ll happen just as soon as many of us are able to pay off our six-figure debts: never.

2020 Law School Student Loan Debt Survey Report [ABA Young Lawyers Division]
‘I Lie Awake at Night’—New Study Highlights the Mental Toll of Law School Debt [Law.com]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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