The legal profession is no stranger to high-pressure environments, long hours, and emotional demands that often lead to one unfortunate but common outcome: lawyer burnout. Many attorneys enter the profession driven by passion and purpose, but the relentless pace of client demands, court deadlines, and case management can quickly drain that initial enthusiasm.
The Alarming Rate of Lawyer Burnout
Burnout is ubiquitous for lawyers globally–two-thirds of lawyers experience it! In the United States, an annual burnout survey conducted by Bloomberg Law has consistently found that attorneys feel burned out in their jobs nearly half of the time. Routinely, female lawyers report higher rates of burnout than their male colleagues (attributed to parental stress). Though that gap is starting to shrink, in 2023 female lawyers reported 56% of the time, compared to 41% of men.
Burnout can result in feelings of emotional exhaustion, a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, growing cynicism toward the job, and reduced effectiveness. If not remedied, these symptoms can devolve into depression and anxiety. In 2016, the ABA conducted a study with 13,000 working lawyers and found that around 28% of survey respondents experience symptoms of depression, and 19% have experienced anxiety.
A Shift Toward Burnout Prevention
When Smith + Malek was founded, building a work environment that intentionally addresses and prevents lawyer burnout was a high priority. It’s not just about giving attorneys time off; it’s about building a sustainable system where burnout prevention is embedded into our culture. Team-based collaboration, family-friendly benefits, and timely mentorship are three ways that Smith + Malek supports its employees and helps prevent attorney burnout before it starts.
Team-based Collaboration
In traditional law firms, attorneys often bear the sole responsibility for managing their client files from start to finish. This can become overwhelming, especially when multiple cases pile up simultaneously. To alleviate this pressure, we adopted a team-based collaboration model. Under this system, multiple attorneys work on a client’s file together, rather than having a single person shoulder the entire burden. Not only does this model ensure that the work is spread out, but it also provides flexibility for lawyers to take periodic breaks to reduce burnout. A collaborative model gives our team support while reducing gaps in client support and a knowledgeable team with the same goal in mind – doing what’s best for the client.
Family Friendly Benefits
Our family-friendly workplace policies have drawn the top female, parent, and “rising star” attorneys from around the region. Today, Smith + Malek is a female-majority firm with a female-majority C-Suite. Earlier this year, it was awarded the Idaho Business Review’s “Empowering Women” award. While we proudly offer paid parental leave for all parents and a flexible scheduling to all attorneys, we know that female attorneys report higher rates of burnout due, in part, to parental load. Our culture and policies are intended to help shift this dynamic and ultimately, help all attorneys thrive both professionally and personally.
Mentorship
Some attorneys may not want to admit they’re feeling overwhelmed for fear of being seen as weak, incapable, or letting team members down. That’s where our mentorship focus comes in. Our practice leads meet with their attorneys for 1:1s that hold space for open conversations about workload, stress management, and work-life balance.
Formal and informal mentorship opportunities also arise as team members work together on client files. Working collaboratively means that lawyers can strategize with professional staff at all levels, which fosters trust in each other and ultimately results in the best product for the client. “I never thought about it that way,” is a common refrain in the halls and on our Slack channels. Team-based work and mentorship opportunities result in a synergistic quality that supports, rather than drains, attorneys.
Building a Better Path Forward
With attorney burnout prevention strategies like team-based collaboration, progressive benefits and schedule flexibility, and mentorship programs in place, we intentionally design a workplace culture where legal professionals and staff can thrive—both in their careers and in their personal lives. By creating a sustainable work environment, we believe we can help their attorneys remain passionate, effective, and engaged in their work for years to come.