Walker Clark Worldview

There is an interesting short article this morning in legalweek.com on the subject of burnout, citing research on the impact of prolonged work and mental stress on one’s physical health.  Click here to read the article.

There are several important points that lawyers and legal managers need to understand about burnout.

1. Burnout is not just a “personal problem.”  It is a business issue in which management must be involved.
2. Although lawyers are usually more experienced at working under stress, this does not mean that we are better at it or more resistant of its physical and emotional effects.
3. Staff and non-lawyer managers in law firms and law departments are no less vulnerable to burnout; but their relative lack of “experience under fire,” which lawyers must handle frequently, might make staff less able to cope with stress.
4. Management can and should take firm steps to mitigate burnout and its effects on individuals, as well as to protect the investment that the firm has made in each person.

Walker Clark, LLC, offers an integrated approach to help lawyers and their law firms or law departments cope with stress as individuals and groups.  For more information, contact Lisa Walker Johnson, a Walker Clark member, counseling psychologist, and internationally recognized authority on burnout and management responses in the legal profession.

Norman Clark

Tags: burnout, leadership, staff, stress

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 16:41 and is filed under leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.