Beyond the Gavel: Ethics and Wellness for the Legal Community

Every day, attorneys, judges, and court employees are faced with challenges, both professional and personal, that may affect their mental health. It was therefore appropriate to shine a light on these issues at the annual Summit of the Appellate Judges Education Institute (AJEI), held in Boston, Massachusetts at the Westin Seaport from November 13, 2024, through November 17, 2024. Plenary Session 3, entitled Beyond the Gavel: Ethics and Wellness for the Legal Community (the “Session”), sought to identify the causes of stress and other associated mental health issues in the legal community as well as their effects on the attorney’s ability to comply with ethics rules, perform their job, and maintain a healthy personal life, and to explore resources and strategies for proactive and reactive responses to mental health issues.

The Session was moderated by Hon. Christopher M. Goff, Justice, Indiana Supreme Court, and the panelists included, from left to right, John A. “Sean” Doyle, General Counsel for MCNC and Well-Being Consultant, Terry Harrell, Executive Director of Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, and Hon. Steven David (Ret.), Indiana Supreme Court.

The learning objectives for the Session were to aid participants in being able to identify the general signs of mental health or substance use concerns, examine the relationship between mental health, substance use, and their ethical obligations as attorneys and judges, understand the steps to address suspected mental health or substance use issues, and be able to apply these concepts to their legal community.

The Session materials included a copy of The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change (the “Report”) from the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. The Task Force was conceptualized and initiated by the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP), the National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC), and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL). The Report’s recommendations focus on five central themes that were also the predominant themes of the Session:

1. Identifying stakeholders and the role each of us can play in reducing the level of toxicity in our profession.
2. Eliminating the stigma associated with helpseeking behaviors.
3. Emphasizing that well-being is an indispensable part of a lawyer’s duty of competence.
4. Educating lawyers, judges, and law students on lawyer well-being issues.
5. Taking small, incremental steps to change how law is practiced and how lawyers are regulated to instill greater well-being in the profession. Recognizing that this number of recommendations may seem overwhelming at first, the Report also provides proposed state action plans with simple checklists.

The Session also included materials and a discussion of a collaborative research project between the ABA and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (the ABA Hazelden study), the results of which were published in February 2016. The study confirmed that lawyers do indeed suffer from substantial rates of behavioral problems including alcohol dependent drinking, depression, anxiety and stress. Other statistical analyses, such as the North Carolina bar’s report that was included in the Session materials and discussed during the Session, demonstrate the same.

As Justice Goff noted, there is always a struggle, particularly in remote areas, to find the necessary resources to refer to someone in need of assistance. Panelist Terry Harrell, Executive Director of Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, is a lawyer, therapist, and addiction counselor of 24 years who works exclusively with legal community. She advocates for normalizing therapy and having a culture in the legal field that permits its members to be open about wellness, particularly considering the high percentage of those afflicted by such wellness issues.

Besides substance issues, several other stressors contribute to the impairment of lawyers’ and judges’ wellness. The materials provided a list of sources of judicial stress that included (among many others) the importance/impact of their decisions, heavy docket of case, long hours of work without a break, hearing contentious family law issues, isolation, concern over personal or family safety, and political pressures. Retired Justice David shared his experience of authoring an opinion of the Indiana Supreme Court that received difficult and impassioned criticism. Secondary trauma—where a professional is not involved in the initial trauma, but in the course of his or her work the professional is impacted by the trauma (often a cumulative effect)—affects both judges and lawyers as well.

But wellness is not a standalone issue. In the legal field, it implicates a number of ethical considerations as well. Consistent with the focus of the Session, the materials raised the significant and multiple ethical considerations that are attendant to lawyer impairment. Ethical issues regarding competence, the duty to report, obeying the law, lawyer and judicial misconduct, and declining or terminating representation, among many others, arise. For example, what should you do if you think you are impaired? What should you do if you suspect another lawyer who is not in your firm is impaired? What should you do if you suspect a lawyer in your firm is impaired? Panelist Terry Harrell shared the large firm anecdote that lawyers within the firm often do not know if others around them are struggling because everyone sticks to themselves, which is an area needing improvement.

Ethics rules governing every jurisdiction cover most of these issues. There are hotlines and the availability of advisory opinions in many jurisdiction as well. Some of the solutions regarding remediating or identifying these issues that we discussed during the Session included starting groups that people can participate in, having wellness activities, games, lunches, book clubs, etc., and having a safe work place culture where it is okay to not to be okay as long as you do something about it. Panelist Sean Doyle shared that having relationships with others helped those who were having problems and who were isolated by fostering connections and therefore improving lives.