Up to 70% of lawyers will suffer from burnout

In May 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) included burnout as an occupational phenomenon in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD–11), the 2024 Law Society Skillnet wellbeing summit has heard (15 October).

However, burnout is not recognised as a medical condition, but as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.

It is a collection of symptoms characterised by:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion,
• Increased mental distance from one's job or feelings of negativism or cynicism, and
• Reduced professional efficacy.

Paul Hughes, psychotherapist with Law Society Psychological Services, told the 1,000 attendees at the summit that burnout referred specifically to the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experience in other areas of life.

Dr Noel Kennedy (psychiatrist and clinical director at Highfield Healthcare) said that burnout was not at all uncommon.

Studies showed that about 70% of lawyers would at some stage suffer from burnout in their career, he said.

Disconnected

It tends to affect younger lawyers, typically those who are overworking, those who feel isolated and disconnected from their colleagues and peers, and those who have an inability to switch off.

This can commonly lead to clinical depression or a persistent low mood, and poor energy levels, with no enjoyment of usual leisure activities, and sleeplessness and appetite disturbance, even leading on to hopelessness or suicidal ideation.

“There is a very big link between feeling unwell and feeling unhappy in your workplace,” Dr Kennedy said.

Multi-disciplinary pharmacological or psychological treatment, and lifestyle adjustment, were the usual treatments at Highfield, he said.

In-patient treatment for short periods might be needed and the outcomes were excellent with a multi-modal approach, he stated.

Up to 85% of people were completely better within a year, Dr Kennedy added.

“Employers often underestimate the time it takes for people to recover from depression,” he said.

Katrina McLoughlin (clinical manager, ClanWilliam Institute) said that more extreme elements surfaced where people delayed getting access to support.

Untangling

“A lot of our work is actually untangling what is really going under the bonnet,” she said.

Patients may have absolute exhaustion and apathy, poor self-care, and be unable to express what's really going on.

Feelings of not achieving will clash with a whole raft of ideas about who they are and their long-standing identity.

Women were quicker to access mental-health support, McLoughlin said.

The Clanwilliam Institute has partnered with the Law Society to support its members in quickly accessing high-quality psychotherapy.

“It's really important that people get the opportunity to slow down and really understand what's going on because, ultimately, that level of awareness will allow people to change and decide to do things a little bit differently going forward,” she stated.

Dr Kennedy said that he typically saw men quite late in the course of illness.

“When the economy crashed, we had a situation where people were very, very overwhelmed. We saw a whole wave of, particularly, men coming in with severe financial problems that they couldn't find a solution to, and many of these were lawyers,” he said.

Since COVID, mental problems concerned a mix of isolation and over-employment, and the constant checking of emails, he stated.

Younger lawyers might have less autonomy, he added, and burnout and mood-disorder statistics were skewed towards people in their 20s and up to late 30s.

“People don't have that autonomy to turn off really,” Dr Kennedy said.

Isolation, and not communicating or having social time, led to over-drinking as a way of coping with the pandemic, he stated.

Early intervention was important to prevent more serious illness late on, the gathering heard.

The legal profession is at high risk of substance-misuse disorders because of ongoing stress at work.

Katrina McLoughlin said that people were not robots, irrespective of their legal skills.

The expectations of organisations on their staff, and their responsibility to people, must be examined, she said.

She suggested creating boundaries by saying: ‘I hear that you'd like me to do that, but what would you like me to stop doing if I'm going to focus on that?’

Workers should mind their pace, she said, and slow down their response rate.

“Take rest when you can, and have more awareness of your reactions,” she advised.

Chronic stress was very difficult to deal with and led to chronic burnout and then chronic depression, the webinar heard.

Dr Kennedy said that time out, exercising, having a normal social life, and linking with colleagues offered what he termed ‘soft psychological support’.

While working from home had huge advantages, it reduced the ability to link with colleagues on a relaxed social basis, he stated.

There are good mental-health services that could be quickly accessed, particularly at crisis points, the webinar heard.

“I would urge people to reach out and talk – talk to colleagues, talk to friends,” said Paul Hughes.

Fall-off in legal collegiality

Michael Quinlan (chair of Law Society Professional Wellbeing Steering Group and past-president of the Law Society) commented that there had been a falling away of legal collegiality since the pandemic.

He pointed to the importance of bar associations, and cluster events.

“Go out and meet your colleagues. It's important that if you have problems you talk to a colleague,” he said.

Resilience and wellbeing speaker Ronan Harrington said that there was a shift in expectations from younger lawyers, who were more likely to draw clear boundaries and prioritise a work-life balance.

It was vital for firms to adapt to these changes with clear communication, Harrington said.

The ability to connect on a human level, particularly in a relationship-driven field such as law, cannot be replaced by technology.

“They're incredibly smart, they're incredibly efficient, they're incredibly hard-working, but they're actually drawing lines,” said Adrian Mulryan (Invesco Investment Management and past partner at LK Shields Solicitors).

However, this can lead to older lawyers shouldering the burden of late hours, as younger staff walk out the door.

Legal work styles could be ‘pseudo-productive’, or in a reactive posture, rather than actually discerning where true value creation lay, the webinar heard.

Regular one-on-one check-ins were critical in a healthy workplace, and happy and engaged employees would stay longer, Harrington said.

However, those who had risen in the legal hierarchy were often exemplars of stamina and ‘endurance culture’, he added.

Ultimately, burnout will decline if managers adopt the watchwords of ‘focus me, free me, know me’ in relation to all their staff.

Patricia Gannon (founder of Platforum9 social audio app for lawyers) said that the role of the lawyer would only be enhanced with technology.

But that meant that legal skills must be more inherently human, Gannon added.