Viewing Attorney Wellness Through the Lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Attorneys have disproportionately higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress than other professions. Those rates are higher for younger and newer attorneys, and attorneys from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds are impacted even more disproportionately. Well-being comprises emotional health, occupational pursuits, creative or intellectual endeavors, a sense of spirituality or greater purpose in life, physical health, and social connections with others. Your actions can either contribute to or deplete your well-being. Not paying attention to well-being can contribute to dissatisfaction with your legal work, physical illness, burnout, depression, and substance use challenges.

This program will give participating attorneys, especially attorneys from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds, the skills and motivation to improve their legal competency by improving their personal wellness, or well-being.

Why You Should Attend

The program will make the connection between attorney well-being and legal competency, demonstrating how when attorneys improve their own well-being, they are better able to adhere to the codes of professional conduct. We will cover some of the most common stressors in the legal workplace and demonstrate how these stressors can have a negative impact on well-being and how they disproportionately affect attorneys from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds. The program will provide attorneys with the tools to address these stressors, as well as realistic strategies and techniques for participants to proactively build general well-being so they are better able to deal with stressors when they arise and are in a better position to practice law competently, adhere to the codes of professional conduct, and serve their clients.

What You Will Learn

After completing the program, through participation in interactive scenarios, participants will be able to:

• Identify the components of wellness, or well-being, for attorneys
• Describe the connection between well-being and attorney competency
• Understand how improving well-being leads to a greater ability to be able to adhere to the codes of professional conduct and remain a competent attorney
• Recognize common stressors in legal workplaces for attorneys from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds
• Understand how these stressors have a negative impact on well-being
• Understand how to reduce the impact of these stressors on themselves and other underrepresented attorneys when they face them
• Employ strategies to improve well-being to be better able to adhere to the codes of professional conduct and be a competent attorney
• Recommend or put into place policies and procedures to improve the well-being of all attorneys in the workplace by addressing the challenges faced by underrepresented attorneys

Who Should Attend

This program is applicable to all attorneys (in the private and public sector) at any level. However, it is especially designed with a focus on attorneys from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds (which we will also refer to as “underrepresented attorneys”). This program could also be useful to law students.

Special Features

• Earn up to 1.5 hours of substance abuse, mental health, or ethics credit depending on your jurisdiction. Please confirm approval for your jurisdiction in the credit information section.
• Earn up to 1.5 hours of Diversity, Inclusion, and Elimination of Bias credit depending on your jurisdiction. Please confirm approval for your jurisdiction in the credit information section.
• This program is from PLI's Interactive Learning Center. It offers a high level of participant engagement and requires more program interactions than a traditional program.

Look for additional online programs from the Interactive Learning Center.