In its 2023 Profile of the Legal Profession, the American Bar Association published stark statistics on the state of mental health among legal professionals.
The ABA found that lawyers are twice as likely as non-lawyers to think about suicide, with the problem being most acute among junior associates. Nearly half of men and over two-thirds of women surveyed reported moderate or severe stress, 23% of women and 15% of men reported severe anxiety and 20% of women and 15% of men in the survey reported moderate or severe depression.
Stephen Dietrich, a partner at Holland & Knight, recently published a book, Fear Dynamics: Harnessing Fear and Anxiety to Create Lasting Happiness and Meaningful Achievement. In the book, he discusses the challenges he’s faced in his life, and the techniques and strategies he’s learned to better his mental health and build a more happy and fulfilling life.
Dietrich told Law Week that as he put in the work to change himself, he realized that the dynamics of fear and anxiety exist all over the place.
“I changed how I interacted with the world, how the world felt to me,” said Dietrich. “And I thought this is something that you don’t need to have a history that I have to have these fears and anxieties.”
Dietrich defined the core term and focus of the book, “fear dynamics,” as “the behavior and communication patterns that occur during interpersonal interactions in which one or more of the people involved are consciously or unconsciously reacting to fears.”
Dietrich thinks that many lawyers, at some level, are dealing with anxiety that is generated from some kind of fear.
“There’s a lot of areas [in the legal profession] for anxiety driven by fear,” said Dietrich. “And then dealing with it, I think everyone has to deal with it in different ways. And that’s another reason why I really wanted to try to communicate this.”
Dealing with that anxiety and fear takes many forms, but Dietrich told Law Week about some techniques and practices both law firms and individuals in the profession can use to help create healthier work environments and healthier lawyers.
In his personal practice, Dietrich is trying to normalize checking in with his colleagues.
“If you broke your leg, people are like, ‘Hey, how’s your leg doing?’ There’s no big deal asking someone about that,” said Dietrich. “But why can’t we talk about these issues similarly, or start to make them more normal? To say, ‘Hey, how are you doing with your newborn, or how are you doing with your elderly parent that we know you’re caring for?’”
On the structural side, Dietrich noted that every business has a culture, whether it’s an intentional or unintentional culture.
“If you’re intentional about it, then I think making those human connections will allow the stress to be dealt with.”
Dietrich gave a recent example of that human connection and intentionality in his work. An associate was working with a challenging client, and he watched the email traffic and the interactions that were going on. Once the project finished, he spoke with the associate and told him that he handled the difficult circumstance well.
“I think those connections that happen outside or on the periphery allow you to actually be more efficient and effective in serving your clients, whether they’re internal or external clients, because you’re not as brittle,” said Dietrich. “You can be yourself, you can be vulnerable, you can ask questions to solve the problem… You’ve got to create an environment where you can be comfortable exploring that and do that.”
On the individual side, Dietrich described two techniques that he uses in stressful or anxious moments. The first, and an easily applicable one, is building in a pause before acting.
“Part of the benefit in what lawyers are supposed to do is to think and to be thoughtful about things and try to solve problems, and that takes time,” said Dietrich. “And one of the things that is really helpful, whether it’s a nanosecond when you’re in a negotiation or trying to work on something, is to just build in a pause.”
The second, and one that takes a bit more work and time, is to build out and run through a decision tree to reflect on stressful or anxiety-inducing scenarios.
“When I’m engaging with someone and I’m starting to feel anxious or attacked or something that’s not right, I try to look at it either in that moment of time, if I’m fortunate,” said Dietrich. “If not, I have to unpack it later, but say, ‘Is what that person’s saying objectively reasonable? Did I actually get it wrong? Did I miss the concept in the contract and it was wrong?’”
Based on his analysis of the situation and the way the person is interacting with him, reasonably or otherwise, Dietrich can determine whether it’s an issue he himself needs to deal with or one the other person needs to address.
“It gives you the ability to say, ‘All right, all that other noise I’ll deal with later, and figure out what’s going on, but now I understand what the problem is, whether it’s me or not, and I can move forward,’” said Dietrich.
By sharing these techniques and his own story, Dietrich hopes that the message of the book is a positive one.
“Part of the story is the change,” said Dietrich. “And you can look at your life, and you can try to become a better and a happier person.”