A new study
conducted by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the American Bar
Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs reveals high levels of
depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse among lawyers in the United States. The results of the study were published in
February 2016 by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. 12,825 members of the legal profession were
included in the study.
Twenty-eight
percent of the study participants experienced symptoms of depression and
slightly more than twenty percent met the criteria for alcohol abuse. Nineteen percent of the participants
experienced symptoms of anxiety. These
percentages are significantly higher than comparable percentages for the general
population, indicating that lawyers in the United States are significantly more
likely than the general population to suffer from depression, anxiety and alcohol
abuse.
Those
conditions are manifestations of distress, and the data suggest that the level
of distress within the legal profession is getting worse. The rates of depression, anxiety and alcohol
abuse among lawyers reported in the new study are somewhat higher than the
rates reported in earlier studies based on data collected roughly twenty years
ago.
The
results of the new study are broken down demographically by gender and by years
in the practice. Lawyers in the first
ten years of their practice were found to have higher rates of depression,
anxiety and alcohol abuse than lawyers who have been practicing longer. This may suggest that the clinical
manifestations of distress among lawyers are more likely the result of
increasing levels of stress within the profession, and less likely the result
of professional burnout.
The
factors contributing to widespread distress within the legal profession are
described in my book, Transforming
the Practice of Law: Reclaiming the
Soul of the Legal Profession. The
book also contains specific suggestions for reforms that will lead the
profession to a better future. We should
all be concerned about the current state of affairs since the legal profession
is responsible for administering our system of justice, for ensuring that our
society is governed by the rule of law, for and safeguarding our constitutional
rights.
