Are you a sad lawyer? Hello, hi. *Hug* You’re not alone. The statistics are staggering: lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to be depressed compared to people in other jobs, while the landmark 2016 American Bar Association and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation study found that 28% of licensed, employed lawyers suffer from depression. The study also showed that 19% have symptoms of anxiety and 21% meet the description of ‘problem drinkers’. This figure can surely only have grown in the last few years.
There’s a remedy for that
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way! We’re inviting you to tune into LinkedIn Live for a series of pep talks by rehabilitated lawyer Elizabeth de Stadler. (We can’t claim to cure mental health issues, but we certainly can talk about ways to be more creative, fulfilled and even have a bit of fun again.)
The Rehabilitated Lawyer series will connect those who have a love-hate relationship with the legal industry, so we can team up to overthrow the current system with a wave of fuckery and fresh thinking, and make sure the next generation of lawyers can do better, feel better and make better things. That sounds pretty great, even if we do say so ourselves.
Just work your steps
The concept is simple. We can get you from Sad Sack to Rehabilitated Lawyer in six easy steps. (And you don’t even need to give up your favourite drug!)
Our rehab programme will help you:
- Find your purpose
Why did you get into law in the first place? What is the role of the lawyer? What do good lawyers do? Can you use your law degree for good (or evil)? - Learn how to solve problems
Design thinking. UX. Information design. Biomimicry. We’re learning how to problem-solve, the designer way. - Speak and write like a human
Learn to write advice, contracts, policies and emails that work for your reader! After all, if it’s not read, it’s dead. - Make friends and influence people
Law is about getting people to change. How do you do that? Learn from the fields of decision theory, change management, psychology and behavioural economics. - Be a risk manager
What does that even mean? And how do you do it? - Learn from other people
What are we reading? Who are we listening to? What are we watching? And how has it helped?
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (or mildly bummed out to massively miserable)
Kind of intrigued by the Rehabilitated Lawyer series but wondering if you fit the bill? If one or more of the following descriptions sounds like you, you’re invited to this party to #makelawfunagain.
- Practising lawyers and advocates who are burned out, bored and tired of the toxic workplace bullshit
- Partners or leaders in law firms, or people who run legal businesses, and who want to change the culture of their organisation
- Folks in law-adjacent fields, including in-house legal, compliance officers, risk managers and mediators
- Humans who train and wrangle lawyers, including legal academics, HR practitioners, knowledge managers, trainers of lawyers and legal project managers
- Those who (think they) want to be lawyers, including aspiring law students and candidate attorneys
- Finally, lawyers who may already be rehabilitated, but want to convert other people, solve the problems others can’t solve, and stay on top of trends and tech.
Ready to join the first Rehabilitated Lawyer pep talks? Bring your friends! Follow Novcon on LinkedIn to hear about upcoming events first.