Saturday, 10/10 is World Mental Health Day, and this year’s theme is the one I’d choose for the legal profession if I could choose only one: “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.”

Here is why those words matter so much in law.

What the Profession Just Learned Abou...

Every other quarter, work and life take turns being demanding. Q4 is the one where they peak together.

Year-end deadlines, billing pushes, matters that need to close by December 31, and performance conversations all land in the same twelve weeks as Thanksgiving, school concerts,...

Somewhere back in January, you decided to build a habit. A morning routine, weekly business development, leaving at a reasonable hour. You started strong, life got loud, and by March it had dissolved into the pile of things you meant to do.

Instead of guilt, I want to offer a se...

This week I’m in Dallas speaking at a law school orientation about aligning your career with your values and strengths. The same week, my daughter Allison starts law school.

A couple of weeks ago our family was in El Salvador, where two other young women are pursuing legal educa...

“I was fine all day. Then I snapped at someone over nothing.”

I hear that from legal professionals constantly, usually with a little embarrassment attached. Right alongside a second version: “I had the whole day blocked to work on the thing that actually matters. I never got to ...

Something important is happening in the way this profession talks about well-being.

I noticed it on the very first day of the Professional Development Consortium Summer Conference in Atlanta last week, sitting in a session where "shared responsibility" came up. I remember thinki...

Most legal professionals I talk to can describe the feeling precisely, even if they can’t explain it. The day wasn’t unmanageable. The work went fine. But by the time they got home, they felt emptied out in a way that a good night’s sleep doesn’t fully fix.

This isn’t a stamina ...

For years, the standard advice on imposter syndrome has been a version of the same message: silence your inner critic, push past self-doubt, "fake it until you make it."

If you've tried this approach, you already know how well it works, which is to say, not very well at all.

Ro...

Somewhere on your team right now, someone knows something that isn't being said. Not because they're withholding, but because they believe that openly raising mistakes, blind spots, and missteps won't be met with support, but with judgment.

It's a dynamic that Amy Edmondson, a r...

In 2017, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being published a report that made a statement most of the profession wasn't ready to hear: "To be a good lawyer, one has to be a healthy lawyer."

The report went further. It argued that well-being is an indispensable part of a law...

People don't disengage because they stop caring. They disengage because they no longer feel safe enough to say what they need.

It starts small. A schedule conflict you don't mention because you don't want to look inflexible. A concern about a case strategy you keep to yourself b...

You don't need a gym membership, a recovery protocol, or a wearable device to access one of the most well-researched performance enhancers available.

You just need to walk.

Walking is so ordinary that it barely registers as exercise. There's no learning curve, no equipment, no ...