Experienced Personal Injury

Lawyers

▬ Last-Minute Trial Specialists

▬ Over $100 Million Recovered

Recent Jury Verdicts:

$4,000,000 Jury Verdict – Motorcycle Accident (Defense offer: $300,000)

$1,400,000 Jury Verdict – Mortuary Negligence (Defense offer: $150,000)

$5,700,000 Jury Verdict – Emotional Distress (No offer)

$877,000 Jury Verdict – Auto Accident (Defense offer: $109,000)

Generous Referral Fees Paid

Most of our cases come from referrals by other attorneys. Why? Because they trust us to achieve the best results for their clients.

There are countless articles about why the practice of law is stressful and why lawyers stop practicing law. The top reasons lawyers burn out include stress and work-life balance. The root causes of stress and work-life balance issues are things that can be managed, but that often get ignored or overlooked by members of a high-stakes profession where most participants are highperforming perfectionists focused on winning and the satisfaction of other people, including clients, judges, and even peers.

This article is a summary of potential solutions. This list is not exhaustive and likely contains many strategies that lawyers are intellectually aware of but lack the resources or will to engage with. As part of this summary, I will share, anecdotally, how my law firm has implemented some of these solutions in the partly altruistic hope that it can help other lawyers achieve the happiness and joy in the practice of law that many of my law partners and associate attorneys have found at Dunlap, Bennett & Ludwig.

Here are several strategies that lawyers should consider using to help themselves alleviate some of the issues related to burnout and stress:

1. Establish boundaries. You hear the work-life balance bandied about by almost every law firm’s recruiting team, but what policies support this? Merely saying a thing does not make it so. While it is crucial for individual lawyers to set limits for working hours and to avoid obscuring the lines between work and personal life, law firms need to step up to support this.

An excellent way to start this is to create unplugged time daily where you don’t answer the phone, check email, or do anything related to work. Explicitly communicating specific expectations with bosses, clients, and peers is vital but something many lawyers shy away from without a rational basis. Setting an out-of-office (OOO) notice every day from noon to 1 pm might be enough. Establishing boundaries at work is critical in managing stress, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and preventing burnout.

DBL’s internal mentorship program offers an outlet for more junior attorneys to meet with partners outside their regular working group for advice on communicating. We have found that with a policy of unlimited vacation and telecommuting for our attorneys, the boundary conversation is a two-way street, and a combination of clearly communicated