Back To Law Matters | Spring 2015

Law and Happiness

The Health of Our Profession

When I started working at the College of Law I wanted to find something to write on that combined some of my personal interests.  I was also really hoping to have found the work that filled me up and made me, well, happy.

I knew from work I had done years ago that vicarious trauma and cumulative stress disorder was prevalent among firefighters, EMT and I had made connections to the police force. My findings of depression, addiction, poor health and family breakdown were so obviously connected to all people who witness stress and social decay (the military) that I began to look at my own profession, law: students, lawyers, judges.  I knew lawyers who were drinking alcohol like athletes drink Gatorade, took medical leaves and called them family days, had lost the trust in trust funds and were divorced more than once.  I had had an inside look at a few things that were showing me that we might have a few cracks in our foundation.  

Sadly, I found that our introduction to conditions that create favorable conditions for major depressive disorders come in first year law.  It turns out that thinking like a lawyer has side effects no one had been paying attention to. The subliminal messages about reading cases for legal issues and ignoring the emotional and human crises within the cases adds up.  The high stress, one hundred percent finals, socratic teaching, objectivity, adversarial resolution techniques and lack of choice in courses, schedules, and professors, the abundant use of alcohol for socializing and so on, all play a role in creating our life styles. I learned of rates of depression as high as 40% in first year law and depression at rates of 20-30% among lawyers. All conditions that lead to depression and ultimately can lead to suicide (3rd leading cause of death among our ranks).

As my sleuthing for happy lawyers continued, I found articles in the Lawyers Weekly on services such as Alberta Lawyers Assistance, and stories about how to detect problems with a partner or an associate, and where to find centres who specialize in PTSD for lawyers. This research started to show me- there are more of us suffering the malaise of law than we acknowledge.

I read news articles and started to hear from law students and lawyers who are dealing with the stress of law. Articles on women leaving the legal work force for anything else – or something else in particular. Articles on men being side tracked and overlooked due to family engagement or who simply wanted to have a life with community, engage more in sports, and others who wanted another adventure all together; other articles on our men who have been conditioned not to have emotional responses, unless it is anger. I read articles on people who found passion for their work and I read a ton more on simple techniques that we can do to lighten our load, work within our skill set and release the tension that is taking our lives in directions we did not foresee when our hopes of becoming a lawyer first crossed our minds. Then I had to practice. 

For me, I have to practice what I preach or I am not only professor Socrates, but Hypokrites as well. I took up the practice of mediation. I teach a course on this at the College. I call out students and colleagues who look upset, tired or not themselves. I celebrate the small things and when I have a very bad day- because we will always have those- I reach out for ways and for people to assist me in whatever my dilemma is. 

My reading suggests something else, that lawyers in this category are not going to take it any more.  There are many lawyers and judges who have suffered silently and found ways of coping and living a life where family and self-care that are now a regular part of their calendar. We have been telling our secrets and sharing our coping mechanisms and looking for ‘something’ that has meaning to feed our souls and our families and our bank accounts. The millenials are wanting more than a 9-9 work day and the baby-boomers recommend some work-life balance and our legal work culture is shifting.  Hop on, enjoy the ride, see the view. 


Marilyn Poitras teaches at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, and is a public speaker on Law and Happiness. Marilyn most recently presented on the subject at the 2015 Alberta Law Conference in Edmonton.