Unhealthy law school lessons

[Aly Luftig]

What unhealthy lessons have you learned in law school? That common “think like a lawyer” adage does not necessarily promote the most healthy habits. The lesson follows students as they graduate, pass the bar exam, and begin their legal careers.

Not all law school professors deliberately create added stress for students. Don’t get me wrong, some professors enjoy subjecting students to an unpleasant classroom experience, but other professors have good intentions. But often, students report having levels of anxiety and other mental challenges like depression, alcohol misuse, and more, that they hadn’t experienced prior to law school.

Others who had mental health challenges prior to law school have reported that the symptoms of their conditions have gotten worse after their first year of law school. That’s not exactly the type of encouragement students seek when embarking on an educational journey so imperative for their careers.

Obviously law school involves difficult and time-consuming work, but there are mentally healthy ways to approach hard work. Law school educators and employees can establish environments that don’t promote added stress, especially where stress is already prominent.

Certain parts of the law school “hidden curriculum” contribute to chronic stress for law students, and this chronic stress doesn’t dissipate upon graduation, it trickles into people’s legal careers. The Online Dictionary of Social Sciences defines “hidden curriculum” as the norms, values, and social expectations indirectly conveyed to students.

For example, The Carnegie Report lists the competitive climate in the classroom, the grading curve, and the competitive atmosphere of most law schools as contributing factors to chronic stress for law students. Identifying unhealthy habits and values we’ve learned is important when learning how to work hard in a healthier manner. I recently wrote an article on how logging our awareness of stress can significantly help identify patterns in our behavior and change the ones that don’t serve us.

I’m reading some legal articles and performing other research to study this more, and I’ll be covering more on this subject to go along with my other posts about thinking like a lawyer and what that means. If we don’t promote good mental health in law school, it’s difficult to expect mentally healthy workplaces in the legal industry. If no one talks about it, how and why would it improve?

What is something you’ve learned in school that’s not helping so much in the workplace? Please participate in the conversation and add your own topics so we can keep the open dialogue on mental health in the workplace going! Thanks so much.

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