Quality of life for lawyers 'is a huge raw nerve" says attorney Dan Lukasik who posted a web site to help depressed lawyers.
That lawyers are among the most miserable of men -- and women -- is well-known. Some 19% of lawyers suffer depression at any given time, compared with 6.7% of the population as a whole, says the University of Arizona's Connie Beck, a leading researcher on the subject; one in five lawyers is a problem drinker, twice the national rate. Escalating billable-hours quotas fuel chronic overload, and the ceaseless deadlines and adversarial nature of the work feed anxiety. Some 19% of associate attorneys quit law firms every year, research shows.
Posted by Jill Fallon at December 13, 2007 4:53 PM | Permalink