"Managing the Legal Beast" with the Student Wellness Committee

On March 3rd, the Student Wellness Committee (SWC) sponsored its first public panel entitled, "Managing the Legal Beast: Panel Discussion on Navigating Law School and the Legal Profession with your Mental Health Intact."  The primary goal of the panel was to open discussion about the challenges for mental health wellness that law students and attorneys face, and discuss how the King Hall community (faculty, staff, students) can address these challenges.  A secondary but equally important goal was to normalize mental health struggles and begin to open the dialogue on how common and shared these challenges are among lawyers and law students in particular.   

I was pleased to be part of a panel that discussed questions about mental health and its challenges from three perspectives: law students, law professors, and practitioners.  Also on the panel was Professor Katie Young, currently a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford, who described her current book project on the law school experience with a realistic view of the stressors of law school and how they exacerbate existing mental health challenges and may produce anxiety and depression for students who previously did not experience these conditions.  The second panelist, Pamela Cohen, an experienced staff attorney with Disability Rights California, the Protection and Advocacy organization for the state funded to represent the interests of people with disabilities, addressed the difficult questions of disclosure of mental disabilities, more specifically, when and if to disclose and why.  She called for students, faculty, and administrators to change the culture from within.

In my segement of the presentation, I focused on the much needed culture shift around individuality and autonomy as fundamental democratic values and how they work at cross purposes to de-stigmatizing mental disability.  Shared inter-dependency and relational autonomy is more reflective of how people interact and demystifies how people actually succeed in law school and in practice.  I also discussed the prevalence of depression and anxiety among the general population --e.g., 1 in 4 people will experience depression in their lifetime--and its higher prevalence among law students--e.g., approximately 1 in 3 law students.  I attributed the disproportionate numbers among law students to at least three factors. First, the changing economic climate that results in fewer available "dream jobs" for law students and the realization that the passion which brought them to law school may not translate into a job in that area (at least at first).  Second, we celebrate imbalance--that is, people who sacrifice self-care in law school and legal practice get celebrated as "hard workers" and "devoted, tireless advocates"--rather than emulating the person who strives to balance law school or legal practice with self-care (eating well, exercise, social support networks).  Third, and relatedly, students come to law school as complex individuals with diverse interests and hobbies and after a short time this rich, deep complexity is reduced to a singular identity--law student.  These three factors take a toll on the person emotionally, physically, and psychologically.  

I also talked about how faculty can help identify law students in need of additional support and begin to shift the culture of silent suffering and stigma attached to mental disabilities.  For example, class attendance can be used as a way to check in on students' learning and also their mental health.  Students who are on call in larger classes and fail to attend class may potentially signal that they need additional support or assistance.  It's a good idea to reach out to these students personally and offer support and an open door.  Also, mental health challenges may be a sign or result of academic difficulties.  With that in mind, it can be useful to design courses to include formative assessments and periodic substantive checks to get a sense of where the class stands.  It's also important to pay attention to students' body language and facial expressions which may signal not only confusion with the materials but general lack of energy, motivation, sometimes associated with depression. Included in my presentation was a quote from Justice Louis Brandeis that I think is particularly apt for law students: "If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you."

Approximately 30 law students attended the panel with strong support from the Dean's Office.  In attendance were Senior Associate Dean Madhavi Sunder and Senior Associate Dean Hollis Kulwin. I shared a note of support from Dean Kevin Johnson, who could not attend because of another commitment outside of the law school.