University of Houston Law Center’s Focus on Wellness Creates a Supportive Learning Environment

By anna archer

Memories of law school generally do not bring the nostalgic “glory days” type of reminiscing that most people experience when thinking about high school or college. Instead, lawyers are usually glad those days are behind them. Law school is stressful. In 2017, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being found that while “students start law school with high life satisfaction,” within the first year they become “the most dissatisfied, demoralized, and depressed of any graduate student population.”1

A 2016 survey found high levels of alcohol use, anxiety, depression, and illegal drug use among law students, and also, unsurprisingly, found law students were reluctant to seek help for mental health issues.2 Law students are stressed, but they are also busy and do not want to take time away from studying to figure out how to deal with the stress. When law schools provide support to help law students face law school stressors, they can make a significant difference to students who encounter, for the first time, an extremely stressful and competitive environment.

The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC or the Law Center) has taken student wellness to the next level through (1) a thoughtful design of the new Law Center building that considers student wellbeing; (2) wellness-focused programming during Mental Health Week and finals; (3) professors who are attuned to the students’ wellbeing and a special wellness class; and (4) a new Mental Health Fund established in 2022.3

The John M. O’Quinn Law Building made its debut in the fall semester of 2022. The building includes rooms that celebrate the diversity of UHLC, including an African American Heritage classroom, a Hispanic Heritage classroom, and a Women in the Law classroom. There are also rooms named after trailblazing alumni like Justice Ruby Kless Sondock, the first woman to serve on the Texas Supreme Court during a regular term. These classrooms enable students to “have role models with whom they can identify.”4 The new Law Center also dedicates spaces to support student needs, including a medical privacy room, a lactation room, a meditation room, commuter showers, changing rooms, all-gender restrooms, and an active study/workout room.5 The building’s design also creates a sense of wellbeing with its light-filled, open design, which features a patio where students can relax and enjoy a fantastic view of the Houston skyline.

In addition to having the opportunity to study in a beautiful new building, UHLC students benefit from wellness-focused programming throughout the school year. During finals, the Law Center provides Finals Stress Reliever events like table massages. UHLC also hosts numerous events during Wellness Week, which typically falls around October 10—National Mental Health Day for law schools.6 This year, that programming included a catered lunch and dinner with a speaker from the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program, a lunch-hour meditation, snow cones, and a health fair that provided students with many different resources to support their mental health and wellness needs. Professor Lauren Simpson hosted one health fair table and “brought native grasses, bee and wasp charts, and live caterpillars to be viewed and held.”7 The final event of the week was a petting zoo, where students could hold a baby pig or a bearded dragon.8 While these are not typical law school activities, they can help take students’ minds off of the pressures of law school.9

Finally, UHLC has an outstanding group of professors who are not hesitant to lend a helping hand when students need additional mental health support.

According to Erin Dickson, UHLC’s Director of Student Advisement, the “faculty promote wellness initiatives and keep an open dialogue with their students about it, making sure they have access to the many other resources at the Law Center.”10 In addition to a supportive faculty, Professor Lonny Hoffman teaches a course called Well-Being in the Law, which “explores the challenges to wellbeing and happiness [faced by] law students and legal professionals and then examines possible paths to overcoming those challenges.”11

The Law Center is committed to making sure it has resources available to fit a wide variety of wellness and mental health needs. The Law Center partners with the main campus for counseling and psychological services, student accessibility, health, and wellness; it partners with outside agencies such as AccessLex, the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program, Houston Volunteer Lawyers, and the American Bar Association’s Health and Wellness Committee for financial literacy and mental health resources; and it recently received a $50,000 gift to establish a Mental Health Fund.12 While resources like these alone cannot take away the stress of law school or guarantee the same type of life satisfaction to law students that they had when they started law school, when the resources are combined with supportive faculty, helpful programming, and a thoughtfully designed facility, the chances of having graduates who look back on their time at law school with warmth rather than distress is greatly improved. Most importantly, happy and healthy law students will likely result in happier and healthier lawyers.

Anna Archer is a 2006 graduate of UHLC. She works as a career law clerk for the Honorable Gray H. Miller, who is also a UHLC graduate. Anna is an associate editor on The Houston Lawyer editorial board, and she hosts Behind the Lines: The Houston Lawyer Podcast.