In recognition of the importance of lawyer and law student well-being, we’ve highlighted some of the resources in Biddle’s collection focused on managing stress and finding fulfillment and satisfaction in practice.
Author: Genevieve Tung
There are so many great reasons to pursue a life in the law: to promote justice, to advocate for clients and causes you believe in, to solve complex problems, or to be part of a useful and learned profession. Too often, however, the process of becoming an attorney–or the practice of law itself–leaves students and attorneys stressed, miserable, or unsure of their place and their abilities.
In November 2021, theNew York State Bar Association released its own report, explaining that “attorney well-being is vital—to our own success and to our viability as a profession, one which is built on society’s trust and faith in the rule of law. We, as lawyers and colleagues, must ensure our own health and well-being, and the creation of a culture that supports our colleagues.”
In recognition of the importance of lawyer and law student well-being, we’ve highlighted some of the resources in Biddle’s collection focused on managing stress and finding fulfillment and satisfaction in practice.
This book aims to help students “do well” in their ability to learn, and “be well” in the process, by exploring the deep connection between brain health and wellness.
Written in a witty, informative, and easy-to-read style, the book is full of suggestions to help students establish healthy and productive habits which will benefit both brain and body. Each chapter ends with a self-reflection exercise to help students take the material and consciously begin implementing its suggestions.
Discusses the reality, causes, manifestations, and consequences of fear in legal education and practice, from the standpoint of law students, junior attorneys, and clients. It analyzes fear from a cognitive, physical, and emotional perspective.
The book draws guidance from how other industries address fear (and mistake-making) in education and training. The book concludes with a four-step process for law students and lawyers to reframe fear into fortitude.
In this multi-dimensional collection, you can find tools and information that enable you to have both a successful career and a happy, satisfied life.
These tools will teach you how to harness the transformative power of being more relational and less transactional. The earmark of happy lawyers is the development of emotional intelligence, resilience, and mindfulness practice.The material comes from recognized experts who provide step-by-step behavioral guidance of what you need to do.
This book explains this science and the largely hidden stresses of law school and law practice–how we first encounter them in school, why they continue to impact lawyers long after graduation, and why it doesn’t have to be that way.
It offers practical, direct approaches to preserve and improve your well-being, based on these findings and decades of teaching, litigating, and working with law students and lawyers. The closing sections extend this knowledge specifically to career and job choices.
Attorney Kathleen Paukert describes her personal journey to finding career fulfillment, and shares her best advice for how you can do the same, covering topics ranging from large (how to choose a practice setting, and recognizing your lawyer personality) to small (how to furnish your office, when to lease a copier, and what bank accounts are essential).
Written in a fun and inspirational way, this book will help lawyers find a way to happiness in their career and life.
Starting with self examination, readers will be able to analyze their personal values and then create their own personal fulfillment plan. Create a step-by-step plan for life and career that will get you back on track with your personal definition of happiness
Drawing on recent psychological research on happiness, Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder highlight various factors that contribute to professional stress and frustration–from pressure to increase the number of billable hours to discontents that occur when the job’s demands fail to mesh with a lawyer’s personal values or aspirations.
They offer an array of coping tools, both large and small, that will help attorneys find more balance in their lives.The authors also show how law students can better define their goals to ensure a satisfying career.
Having interviewed more than two hundred lawyers across the country, Levit and Linder enliven their account with engrossing–and sometimes surprising–career stories from both happy and unhappy lawyers. From these stories they develop sensible solutions for lawyers and the legal profession as a whole.
