Law students and lawyers experience much higher rates of depression, anxiety, stress, and alcoholism than the general public. These problems usually start, or escalate, in law school. Drs. Jeff Fortgang and Shawn Healy, two psychologists with Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Massachusetts, examined the various contributing factors, ways of recognizing distress, and suggestions for getting help and staying healthy in “The Full Weight of the Law: How Legal Professionals Can Recognize and Rebound from Depression.”
The webinar was sponsored by the ABA’s Law Student Division, Young Lawyers Division, Law Practice Division, and the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Watch and learn tips on how to prevent, recognize, and address depression in law school.
Dr. Jeff Fortgang graduated Yale in 1971, and, after a few years as a musician/songwriter, completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (from Adelphi University’s Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies) in 1980. Licensed as both a psychologist and alcohol/drug counselor, he has held positions and directed clinical programs at several Boston-area hospitals and clinics, and served as an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry of Harvard Medical School. Since 1998, he has divided his time between private practice and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, the Massachusetts lawyer assistance program.
Dr. Shawn Healy received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Suffolk University in 2006 where he focused most of his research on conflict resolution. During graduate school, Dr. Healy enjoyed teaching a wide variety of undergraduate psychology courses at several colleges in the greater Boston area. For many years he worked at a nonprofit in their community mental health clinics in the greater Boston area serving children, adolescents, and adults with major mental illness and eventually became the director of those clinics. Since 2014, he has worked full time at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, the Massachusetts lawyer assistance program, while also dedicating as much time as possible to playing with his small children.