Its Time For Lawyers To Smell The Roses – Above the Law
Posted: August 15, 2020 at 4:50 pm
One of the tougher challenges of legal practice is to achieve the momentary ability to step back and assess the toll it takes can take on our daily lives and adjust accordingly when damage is being done. I cant think of any better way to state it than Dan Canon has, finding the self-awareness to stop and smell the roses.
At age 42, and beginning a new career, Im pleased to report Ive hit a milestone: Im starting to be able to enjoy things. I can toss a ball around with my kids. I can watch a movie. I can read a book without checking my email after every paragraph. I can do all this without the venial sin of sloth chewing on the leaves of my recovering lawyers brain. I dont mean to brag, but it took a lot of work to get here.
A few years ago, at the apex of my hyperemployment, I realized I was miserable. I didnt socialize with my best friends. I never saw my kids. I drank a lot and slept wherever I landed. I took it for granted that Id be dead before 50. So, with some considerable difficulty, I retreated into the strange world of academia. The work is still demanding, but not lethally so.
Its funny that a law school should be a place of refuge. After all, its where I learned a lot of my worst work habits. Fifteen years ago, universities were still squealing with delight at students who would forsake all else for the law. Replace Octavia Butler and Stephen King with Learned Hand and Erwin Chemerinsky, eschew Mario Kart for civil procedure flash cards, trade that old marriage in for a laptop and some monogram cufflinks thats how you kept the academy happy. So starting in my first year of law school, I dutifully siphoned the extraneous, enjoyable stuff off the top of my head, leaving only room for a list of case names and pentasyllabic argle-bargle.
As a result, I did pretty well in school, but the fundamentals of my humanity were in a catatonic state. I turned into a machine obsessed with work, incapable of sparing a moment for recreational reading, binge watching, or even modest self-reflection. Fires were stoked in my head every time I tried to do something that wasnt working on cases. A decade later, my smoldering brain was stuck in achievement mode, with no neurons left to smell the roses I spent years cultivating.
I asked Dr. Stephanie Hall, a psychiatrist and expert witness on mental health issues, if what I was experiencing was out of the ordinary. Not at all, she said. Americans have placed their identity in what they produce. I blame capitalism. If youre not making or doing something to feed the machine, you feel empty and nervous, because thats what you have internalized as what youre supposed to do to be a worthwhile human.
Sounds about right, but my efforts to abolish capitalism from inside the courthouse have been unsuccessful (so far). How do we fix ourselves? Theres a whole body of ideas and practice in mental health right now around mindfulness, which has a central idea that just being is worthwhile, said Hall. So meditation is the answer, right? I tell her my persistent attempts and failures at starting a meditation practice over the years havent gone so well. She sets me straight.
Mindfulness practice can take the form of meditation, but many people who have difficulty setting aside time to meditate can also practice being mindful while they do other activities. Like writing, for example. A place to start can be allowing yourself to pay attention to your thoughts without judging their worthiness.Or just paying attention to the sensory details of an activity like washing dishes, so you dont let your random, anxious thoughts run away with you.
I asked Professor Laura Rothstein, who teaches disability law and writes extensively on the topic of mental health in the profession, how we can best encourage students and new lawyers to develop healthy work habits. I tell them to channel Louis Brandeis. He made sure to stop work at 5:00 p.m., take time to relax and refresh, and he took vacations. His famous quote is I soon learned that I could do twelve months work in eleven months but not in twelve.
Rothstein prescribes a variety of mindfulness practices to her students, too. Ive had many students tell me that my weekly reminders to take time (even 15 minutes a day or a couple of hours on a weekend) has been helpful to refreshing their mind and body.This is even more important in COVID-19 times.Although we have a lot of time on our hands now, making sure to take time to be mindful and self-aware is essential.
A sympathetic ear on campus can make a difference, Rothstein said. I always tell students to reach out and ask for help from a faculty member, an administrator, someone, if they are concerned about something. Its awful to feel trapped. Knowing that someone might be able to help, to listen, or to steer you to help can go a long way to keeping one from feeling like there is no way out.
I got lucky. I was able to take a step back and give myself the advice I now pass along to students: Youre getting a law license to make your life better, and you havent done that if you end up a labor droid, an alcoholic, or a corpse. To their credit, law schools and bar associations are doing better than ever at promoting mental health much better than they were when I was a student. But we still have a long way to go. Dumb luck, pithy advice, and websites full of substance-abuse resources arent going to be enough to help lawyers who get it in their heads that work should eclipse all other priorities. Most litigators who wander into the thick forest of their careers dont even recognize theyre lost. Its on all of us teachers, practitioners, and colleagues to show them the way.
Brian Cuban(@bcuban)isThe Addicted Lawyer. Brian is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales Of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption (affiliate link). A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he somehow made it through as an alcoholic then added cocaine to his rsum as a practicing attorney. He went into recovery April 8, 2007. He left the practice of law and now writes and speaks on recovery topics, not only for the legal profession, but on recovery in general. He can be reached atbrian@addictedlawyer.com.
Dan Canon
Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and a Professor of Law at the University of Louisville, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Most notably, he served as lead counsel for the Kentucky plaintiffs in the case ofObergefell v. Hodges, which established marriage equality in all 50 states.He writes on civil and criminal justice issues for a variety of regional and national publications. PLEADING OUT, his book on plea bargaining reform, is scheduled to be published in early 2021. His short documentary series on activists in the Midwest can be viewed at http://www.midwesticism.org. He lives a noisy-but-great life in Indiana with his wife and three daughters.
Follow this link:
Its Time For Lawyers To Smell The Roses - Above the Law
- Rupert Sheldrake Questions Materialism - March 31st, 2021
- Ram Dass - How To Accept Yourself - February 8th, 2021
- Leo Gura - The Collective Ego - January 15th, 2021
- News of the World Review: Quiet Ballad of the Lost and Found - The Wall Street Journal - December 22nd, 2020
- Star Trek: Every Hologram That Gained Sentience (& Their Fate) - Screen Rant - December 22nd, 2020
- Taking Charge Of Your Life: Could Your Questions Be The Answer? - Web Hosting | Cloud Computing | Datacenter | Domain News - Daily Host News - December 22nd, 2020
- Most Organizations Still Miss the Mark on Diversity & Inclusion - GlobeNewswire - December 22nd, 2020
- Has The Mandalorian Succumbed to the Dark Side? - Vulture - December 22nd, 2020
- Can Animals Recognize Their Own Reflection? : Short Wave - NPR - December 22nd, 2020
- Self-Delusion on the Russia Hack - The Dispatch - December 22nd, 2020
- Best albums of all time by Black artists - Grand Island Independent - December 22nd, 2020
- The SolarWinds Hack Is Just The Same Sort Of Espionage The US Government Engages In Every Day - Techdirt - December 22nd, 2020
- Geltzeiler: Knicks have 'least-talented' roster in the NBA - RADIO.COM - December 22nd, 2020
- 3 practices every strong leader should embrace to build trust with their employees - Business Insider - Business Insider - December 22nd, 2020
- From Community Cousin to Canada's Highest Court: Rebecca Olivia Watmough - Vancouver Island University News - December 22nd, 2020
- Business communication during the pandemic grew in three key areas - Financial Post - December 22nd, 2020
- Vaccine effective against the new strain of COVID-19, says UAE - Gulf Today - December 22nd, 2020
- Tower Of God: 10 Differences Between The Anime & The Manhwa, Season 1 - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 22nd, 2020
- How do men who have sex with men develop resilience in response to HIV? - aidsmap - December 22nd, 2020
- If you say any of these 6 things during the job interview, don't expect to get an offer: Career expert - CNBC - December 16th, 2020
- Niemi: CASEL Is Updating the Most Widely Recognized Definition of Social-Emotional Learning. Here's Why - The 74 - December 16th, 2020
- OKC musician Chase Kerby's new band Hotel Nights' wintry video for 'Pains of the Weekenders' is a mood on an Oklahoma snow day - Oklahoman.com - December 16th, 2020
- Why Carat is putting emotional intelligence at the core of media buying - Campaign US - December 16th, 2020
- Give it some brainvita - The New Indian Express - December 16th, 2020
- Kyrie Irving is once again reminding us who he is, and the Nets need to take notice - CBS Sports - December 16th, 2020
- What Therapy for Narcissism Involves: Steps and What to Expect - Healthline - December 16th, 2020
- An open letter to Lions fans everywhere: I'm always on your side - The Pioneer - December 16th, 2020
- Using art to help kids tap into their creative side - Joplin Globe - December 16th, 2020
- What 2020 has taught us - The Daily Wildcat - Arizona Daily Wildcat - December 16th, 2020
- $15 million in funding to support health and medical research - University News: The University of Western Australia - December 16th, 2020
- Dean Spade: 'Mutual Aid Always Pops Up Where Disasters Are' - Progressive.org - December 16th, 2020
- I Never Thought I'd Say This, but Offset's Defense of Cardi B Was Absolutely Right - POPSUGAR - December 16th, 2020
- The Thing You Need To Know About Letting Go - Forbes - December 16th, 2020
- Cast headed by Meryl Streep makes Let Them All Talk a winner - Detroit Free Press - December 16th, 2020
- If You're Too Busy for These 3 Things, Your Leadership Skills May Need a Tune-Up - Inc. - December 16th, 2020
- Rick And Morty: 5 Ways It's Similar To Community (& 5 Things It Does Differently) - Screen Rant - December 16th, 2020
- Using Meditation to Achieve Mindfulness - Chicago Health - December 16th, 2020
- 7 skills you need to stand out at work - Yahoo Finance Australia - December 11th, 2020
- One Way to Stop Whitewashing: It's Got to Be Taught - American Theatre - December 11th, 2020
- Coach K not the first with concerns about basketball in a pandemic, but he's the loudest - Union Democrat - December 11th, 2020
- Pondering the Question 'Who Am I?' - Shepherd Express - December 11th, 2020
- Review: The Saved by the Bell reboot gave me an existential crisis - Vox.com - December 11th, 2020
- Overcoming workplace bias - The Miami Times - December 11th, 2020
- Manners are important to teach our children | Health | The Daily News - Galveston County Daily News - December 11th, 2020
- How to recognize and stop self-sabotage at work - Fast Company - December 11th, 2020
- 2021 Will Be The Year Of Mind Gyms, Tele-Therapy & The Rise Of Mental Fitness - mindbodygreen.com - December 11th, 2020
- Mank: A Writerly Life of Words, Alcohol and Inner Conflicts in 1930s Hollywood - The Wire - December 11th, 2020
- A Thinking Environment | theHRD - The HR Director Magazine - December 11th, 2020
- What to do when there's 'nothing' to do... - Boulder Weekly - December 11th, 2020
- Parenting through the pandemic - Fast Company - December 11th, 2020
- White clicktivism: why are some Americans woke online but not in real life? - The Guardian - December 11th, 2020
- The Bachelorette episode 9 recap: Just when you thought he was out, one guy (tries to) pull himself back in - Gold Derby - December 11th, 2020
- GTFOH Trump Watch: Hes Taking This Breakup Really Hard - The Root - December 11th, 2020
- This Is How to Make a Reboot in 2020 - The Ringer - December 11th, 2020
- We Weigh In: Is B&B's Liam Spencer The Worst Man On Daytime TV? - Fame10 - December 11th, 2020
- Making therapy accessible - Gainesville Sun - October 28th, 2020
- The 10 Best Ways To Make The Rest Of 2020 Suck Less - Forbes - October 28th, 2020
- Creative Arts Therapy Club Reaches Out to Campus - West Liberty University News & Media Relations - October 28th, 2020
- 'The Craft: Legacy' is the sparkly savior your Halloween needs: Review - Mashable - October 28th, 2020
- Following up with UO's progress on combating racism and systemic oppression - Oregon Daily Emerald - October 28th, 2020
- What it takes to become a collaborative leader - Chief Learning Officer - October 28th, 2020
- The Unspoken Social and Emotional Benefits of a College Education - The Apopka Voice - October 28th, 2020
- 6 soft skills you'll need for the post-Covid working world - Siliconrepublic.com - October 28th, 2020
- My parents gave my brothers and me $8 million in bonds, stocks and ETFs. Id like to use my profit to travel. My parents refuse - MarketWatch - October 28th, 2020
- 'They Look Like People' and the Horror of Schizophrenia [Unveiling The Mind] - Bloody Disgusting - October 28th, 2020
- My journey from being a young-earth Creationist, Dispensationalist Republican to seeing my neighbor as worthy of my vote - Baptist News Global - October 28th, 2020
- Cam Newton says he wont change the way he dresses - NBC Sports - NFL - October 28th, 2020
- Manhood on the ballot: Trump's self-absorbed bullying vs. Biden's compassion and humility - USA TODAY - October 28th, 2020
- Banyan Tree leads by example and rolls out three new staff mental health initiatives - Spa Business - October 28th, 2020
- It doesn't matter what month it is, the work to raise awareness on disabilities continues for this local school division - WYDaily - October 28th, 2020
- What's on TV: Friday, October 30 to Thursday, November 5 - Sydney Morning Herald - October 28th, 2020
- Effective Hybrid Team Leadership: The New Performance Factor For Successful Companies - Forbes - October 28th, 2020
- How masks are helping these Saskatoon residents beyond stopping COVID-19 - CTV Toronto - October 28th, 2020
- 3 Ways to restore Self-Worth in Your Kids after an Uncertain Year - Crosswalk.com - October 28th, 2020
- Breast oncologist breaks down myths, prevention and tell-tale signs - FOX40 - October 21st, 2020
- Why embracing diversity, equity and inclusion matters to financial advisor firms - CNBC - October 21st, 2020
- New Research Shows Why Crows Are So Intelligent and Even Self-AwareJust Like Us - Good News Network - October 21st, 2020
- How Leaders Can Learn To Be Humble And More Effective - Forbes - October 21st, 2020
- 5 Strategies You Can Use to Build an Emotionally Intelligent Team - Entrepreneur - October 21st, 2020
- How music therapy benefits the autistic brain - Big Think - October 21st, 2020