Too Many Lawyers Suffer from Poor Emotional Health

Many lawyers are happy and live fulfilled lives.  As a segment of society, however, lawyers seem to suffer more from depression than the population in general.  Elevated levels of depression among lawyers have been suggested by various studies and by anecdotal evidence.  According to one observer, the legal profession is one of the least happy and least healthy of all professions.  Moreover, levels of lawyer satisfaction have arguably been declining.  Lawyers generally have strikingly high levels of depression, stress, other mental and physical problems, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse.  These problems highlight how difficult it is to practice law.  (See Patrick J. Schiltz, "Lawyer Well-Being in Large Firms: Choices Facing Young Lawyers: On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession," 52 Vand. L. Rev. 871 (May 1999); Carl Horn III, LawyerLife: Finding a Life and a Higher Calling in the Practice of Law at 26 (2003); Amiram Elwork, Stress Management for Lawyers at 3, 11 (1995).