Paul L. Caron
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Thursday, October 31, 2024

More Young Lawyers Are Entering Big Law With Mental Health Issues. Are Firms Ready To Accommodate Them?

National Law Journal, More Young Lawyers Are Entering Big Law With Mental Health Issues. Are Firms Ready to Accommodate Them?:

National Law Journal (2016)It was always fathomable that law school—with its relentless competitiveness, grading curves and Socratic method—could worsen someone's mental health.

But for reasons including social media, traumatic world events and a global pandemic, many of today's law students with a mental health issue developed it before they finished their undergraduate degree. ...

The overall downturn of mental health in young people prompted Loyola Marymount University law school professor Amy B. Levin to study the available research that could explain what she was seeing in her classes. "In my last five years of teaching, the ability of students to read and write has declined, and I'm not alone in feeling that way," said Levin, who compiled her research into a paper titled "The Kids Aren't Alright."

In addition to struggling with anxiety and depression, a combination of digital media and standardized testing hasn't prepared current law students for the type of deep analysis required by the legal profession, Levin said. "I've had to teach a little more slowly," Levin added. "I'm still a tough grader, but I can't ask students to do something that in high school and college they were never trained to do. I have to give them space to learn it in law school."

Law schools aren't the only institutions that will need to adapt to a generation that requires more accommodations. In the past year, law firm mental health adviser Patrick Krill said he's spoken with several law firm general counsel about a rise in requests for accommodations. "People wanting basic changes to the job description and other accommodations to help them live a more balanced life for their mental health—that's a really different phenomenon from what firms were seeing five years ago, and it's only going to increase," Krill said.

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