Key points:
- Study of roughly 37,000 U.S. lawyers finds 47.5% screen high for work-related burnout; 41.1% said legal profession has been detrimental to their mental health
- Many lawyers reported experiencing depression (21.6%), anxiety (20.4%), stress (18.9%), hazardous drinking (42%), and work-life conflict (35.9%)
- Respondents call for profession to do more, saying barriers like confidentiality concerns (53.3%) and fear of reputational/career harm (49.2%) prevent them from seeking help
- Study says it is the largest multi-jurisdiction lawyer mental health survey to date, updating 10-year benchmark data from ABA/Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation
A recent study of roughly 37,000 licensed lawyers across the U.S. found that nearly half (47.5%) screened high for work-related burnout and 41.1% said that time in the legal profession had been detrimental to their mental health. Moreover, 27% of respondents said they have considered leaving the profession due to mental health issues.
The American Bar Association’s Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and Krill Strategies conducted the study, which was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. It is updates benchmark data on lawyer mental health from a 2016 American Bar Association/Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation study.
The study says it provides the first large, multi-jurisdictional estimate of work-related burnout among lawyers – defined as work-related psychological and physical fatigue and exhaustion – which was found to be the leading cause of lawyer mental health challenges.
ABA President Barbara J. Howard said in a press release that the “research helps us not only better understand the scope of the problems, but as importantly, aids us in better formulating strategies to address these problems.”
Lawyers are depressed and burned out
Many lawyers who responded to the survey reported experiencing depression (21.6%), anxiety (20.4%), and stress (18.9%), which the study says are highly correlated with burnout.
Male lawyers were more likely to experience depression than women, while women experienced higher rates of anxiety and stress. Younger lawyers experienced the highest mental health burden, the study found. For example, depression was 31.5% among those lawyers 30 and under and 9.7% among those 61 and older, and anxiety was 40.4% and 6.2% across the same range.
More respondents without children reported experiencing mental health challenges than those with children (depression: 30.9% vs. 16.8%; anxiety: 29.6% vs. 15.5%; stress: 25.3% vs. 15.4%).
Respondents who selected “other” for gender also had a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress than others, which researchers said warrants additional study.
Lawyers are abusing alcohol and not seeking help
The survey also studied the drinking habits of lawyers. Almost 42% of lawyers screened positive for risky drinking (women ≥3 drinks, men ≥4 drinks) and 26.4% screened positive for high-risk drinking (women ≥4 drinks, men ≥5 drinks). Roughly 21% attributed increased alcohol or other drug use to profession-related stress.
Despite this, only 2.3% of respondents said they were currently diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, indicating a gap between those at risk and those who seek help, the study says.
Women and younger lawyers reported more hazardous drinking than men and older lawyers.
The study said it also provided the first large-scale estimate of work-family conflict in the legal profession, which was defined as the degree to which work interferes with family life. Almost 36% of lawyers reported a high or very high level of work–family conflict.
This conflict was shown to increase the risk of stress in those experiencing high burnout by as much as 15.5 percentage points, indicating that many lawyers may not have an opportunity to recover from burnout at home.
Litigation involvement, work setting, and hours worked impact well-being
While the legal profession broadly experienced elevated levels of distress (i.e., depression, stress, and anxiety), the study found that it is not distributed evenly. Increased levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were associated with whether the lawyer’s job involved litigation, practice setting, and hours worked.
Attorneys whose work involved litigation were more likely to experience depression (23.0% vs. 18.2%), anxiety (22.2% vs. 15.9%), stress (20.5% vs. 14.6%), and burnout (49.6% vs. 42.5%) than those whose work did not involve litigation.
Hazardous drinking was also higher in those whose work involved litigation (42.9% vs. 38.9%), and in those who work in private firms compared with those who work in solo practice (45.8% vs. 35.7%).
In-house attorneys and those working in judicial chambers reported lower rates of distress and burnout than sole practitioners/private practice, the study found.
Finally, longer work hours were correlated with an increase in mental health challenges. For example, 69.5% of attorneys who worked 71 or more hours a week reported experiencing burnout compared to 39.9% of those who worked 31 – 40 hours per week.
Lawyers call for more to be done
While mental health challenges in the legal profession are well-known, 81% of respondents said it is important or very important for the profession to take greater steps to reduce mental health and substance use problems among lawyers (another 15.7% said it is somewhat important).
The study’s authors, Patrick Krill of Krill Strategies (who we interviewed in 2024) and Justin Anker of the University of Minnesota, identified areas of focus for legal organizations, including:
- Respondents cited persistent barriers to seeking help, including confidentiality concerns (53.3%) and fear of harm to professional reputation or career opportunities (49.2%). The authors said these barriers reinforce the need for confidential support independent of disciplinary entities, trustworthy employer assistance that protects an attorney’s reputation and career, and resources that provide credible privacy protections.
- Because distress and burnout were tied to long hours and work-family conflict, the authors said legal organizations should consider improvements to staffing, workflow, and supervision structures. This includes regularly monitoring employee workloads, scheduling check-ins with those consistently working very long hours, and prioritizing schedule predictability and flexibility, when possible.
- A striking 57.6% of respondents said that they had observed mental health and substance use problems in colleagues and 30.8% reported having concerns in the past year about a legal professional’s fitness to practice. As such, authors said it is vital that organizations prioritize and reinforce professional reporting obligations around impairment.
“The magnitude of this research provides us much greater visibility into the current state of lawyer mental health and well-being, along with reliable insights into the drivers of distress and burnout,” Krill said in the press release. “It is obvious we face meaningful challenges and heightened risk, but the opportunities and desire for change that this study reveals appear equally robust.
An article on the study is available in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
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