Public Service Jobs Make Happier Lawyers

The Mission of the Appalachian School of Law Sets up Grads for Happier Lives

A new study reported today in the ABA Journal Law News Now reports that money and prestigious jobs obtained after graduating from a higher ranked school do not lead to happier lives as lawyers. 

The survey measured lawyers’ “subjective well-being,” a combination of life satisfaction and mood. More than 7,800 bar members in four states responded to the survey; the study focused on about 6,200 who provided complete data and said they worked as lawyers, judges or in related positions. 

The survey found that lawyers in “prestige” jobs, who had the highest grades and incomes, aren’t as happy as lawyers working in public-service jobs for substantially lower pay. Judges, however, were happiest of all. 

“Prestige” jobs included lawyers working in firms of more than 100 lawyers and those working in areas such as corporate, tax, patent, securities, estate-planning and plaintiff’s tort law. Public-service lawyers included legal-aid lawyers, prosecutors, public defenders, government lawyers and in-house lawyers for nonprofits.

The study also found:

• Married lawyers were happier than others, as were lawyers with children.

• There was “an almost meaningless correlation” between lawyer well-being and graduating from a higher-tier law school.

• Those who exercised regularly reported greater well-being than others. Practicing yoga and tai chi, however, was not related to well-being.

The study concludes:

These data consistently indicate that a happy life as a lawyer is much less about grades, affluence, and prestige than about finding work that is interesting, engaging, personally meaningful, and is focused on providing needed help to others. . . . 

The data therefore also indicate that the tendency of law students and young lawyers to place prestige or financial concerns before their desires to "make a difference" or serve the good of others will undermine their ongoing happiness in life.

These findings are very good news for graduates of ASL.  As I have noted in other posts, ASL's mission emphasizes community service, public service, and leadership. 

As my series on distinguished alumni shows, many of our grads quickly assume public service positions designed to help others and make a difference.   

Happier in Law School: The Research

Recent research again examined the mental health, happiness, and well-being of law students.   The news is not good, but we've known that for many years. 

Research conducted in 2012, in Australia, examined whether a relationship might exists between emotional intelligence (EI) and better psychological health among law students.  Prior research had reported high rates of depression among law students.  "They experience a significant deterioration in their mental health status during law school  . . . . [that] may begin in the first year of study."

 

The research, using self-assessment tools of three types, indicated that students with higher EI were:

• Less likely to suffer psychiatric symptoms, 
• Less likely to use alcohol,
• More likely to be satisfied with life.

The so-called ""Big Five"  personality factors of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and neuroticism had a stronger link to psychological health.  

The researchers expressed concern that law students appeared to have dispositional factors that made them "prone to depression and other mental health problems."  Accordingly, they recommended further research.  

They also recommended:  "[L]aw (and other) schools should be motivated to develop programs that effectively engage and help law students to become aware of the risk factors for poor psychological health, including dispositional factors, and provide skills training in how to take responsibility for their psychological well-being within the demands of their studies."  A summary of the research appears here.

Law Students and Positive Emotions

Earlier research involving over 100 1Ls law students and over 100 2L law students indicated that more

successful students, measured by class rank and GPA, have certain positive emotional habits.

They show:

• Various kinds of optimism,
• A willingness to reframe events in positive ways, and 
• An ability to overcome obstacles.

Lawyers and Emotions

The mental health problems arising in law school carry forward into practice and the stress of practice may cause even more lawyers to suffer psychological distress.  Lawyers, overall, have a higher incidence of symptoms of various kinds of negative emotion.  In addition, they may lack sufficient levels of positive emotions.  

Emotions are “contagious."  New research shows the brain has "mirror" neuron cells, which may explain this phenomena. In addition, research shows that the electromagnetic field of the heart can sense perceived threats.  The heart then sends signals to the brain that can trigger feelings of fear, anxiety, hurt, resentment, judgment, depression, stress, and fatigue.

So, lawyers need to pay more attention to how their emotional moods may affect prospective clients, clients, and opposing parties. Luckily, lawyers may have greater potential for training in efficient or positive emotions than persons in other professions.

Professor Len Riskin approached this issue by advocating the use of mindfulness meditation by lawyers.  SeeLeonard L. Riskin, ADR and the Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers, and their Clients, 7 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 1 (2002). 

As you recall, I described three meditations I did with incoming 1Ls here and here.

Over the next several postings, I'll discuss the research and recommendations in greater detail. 

Back to School: Guided Meditation for Law Students

As I noted in an earlier posting, we welcomed our incoming 1L students to the school on Friday.  They are really quite wonderful people.

I taught two sessions of the Introduction to Law course.  I ended both of the sessions with a guided meditation.  I want to acknowledge that my business coach, Christine Kane, introduced me to this meditation.  I'll post the second one tomorrow.

Getting Vertical Meditation

By Christine Kane (as modified by Paula Marie Young)

Close your eyes

Take a deep breath in your own rhythm

Take another breath

This time see if you can inhale on the count of 4 and slowly exhale on the count of 6, using this Yoga breathing technique to calm the parasympathetic nervous system

Continue to breath in this way, and

Slowly bring your attention to your tailbone

Imagine a cord running from it through the floor to the center of the Earth

Imagine it as a gold cord

It’s beautiful and radiant

And, at the end of it hangs a gold brick

That swings gently like a pendulum

This cord and brick connects you to the center of the Earth

It’s an anchor

It grounds you to the weight of the dense center of the Earth

You are settled

Calm

Take another deep breath

Move your attention to the top of your head

Imagine a shaft of bright, white light emanating from the top of your head

This light connects you to the heavens

It connects your own divinity to the heavens

Take another deep breath

So, now in your mind’s eye, you have this golden anchor to the Earth and this divine bright light to the heavens

In between these vertical lines, you are connected by your spine

Sit upright so you can very clearly feel the line from the earth to the heavens through your spine

Take another deep breath

With your eyes still closed

Move your attention to your heart

Again, think of it as a fiery, bright light

That radiates from the heart out into the world

Feel that your heart is open

Courageous

Generous

Loving

This is your true self

This is your source of power

Take another deep breath

Remember that the vertical line you have created between the Earth and the heavens, as it runs through your spine, does not relate to the horizontal world of cell phones, and text messages, and emails, and Facebook postings, and YouTube videos, and Netflix programming, or the demands on your time of your studies, work, family, or lovers. 

When that horizontal world begins to overwhelm you, remember that you can tap the source of your true self and your power by envisioning that vertical line. 

Gently open your eyes.

Does ASL's Nationally Recognized Externship Program Enhance Student Happiness?

This summer, I will serve as the Faculty Supervisor for our students working as externs in Kentucky.  I have played this role for our Kentucky students three summers in a row.  One year, I also covered southwest Virginia nearly to the Cumberland Gap.

I love exploring the towns and cities in the area we serve as a law school.  I love meeting the prosecutors, attorneys general, public defenders, judges, Legal Service, and other pubic service attorneys that host our students and serve as their site supervisors.  I love talking with these folks about our well-trained rising 2L students who must complete the externship as part of our educational program.  I also love interacting in my Dispute Resolution course with these more savvy, world-tested lawyers-in-training.  I know they bring a level of confidence and experience to the course that elevates our conversations.

The Appalachian School of Law recently completed a couple of videos describing the externship program that you can view here (narrated by Program Director and Prof. Derrick Howard) and here (student testimonials).

The program at Appalachian School of Law, ranked 9^th for the extent of student participation:

• Allows students to be integrated in the legal workplace and culture.
• Connects students to lawyers and judges in the community.
• Provides an experiential (contextual) learning opportunity.
• Matches students as closely as possible to their passions.
• Assists in post-graduate placements by creating an employment network.
• Requires all rising 2Ls to participate during the summer.
• Offers new programs for 2Ls and 3Ls with prestigious placements in natural resources and in executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government.
• Provides a diversity of placements with:
• 181 Judges
• 166 District attorneys
• 52   Public defenders
• 40   Legal aid offices
• 32   State attorneys general
• 19   NGOs
• 6     Federal attorneys general
•  6    State agencies, and others.

More information about the program appears on the ASL webpage.

Empirical studies suggest that this live-client experience contributes to student's sense of mastery. It also brings home the important role they play for clients needing their help. The experience should enhance feelings of happiness and well-being that could help sustain them through the next two years of law school.

For an excellent article on this topic, see http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202594831234&slreturn=20130320081635