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Analysis (/newyorklawjournal/analysis/)

Remote Work Is Stressing Lawyers Out.

Here’s How to Help Them
Throw a population already prone to stress, depression and substance abuse into working remotely for months dur
pandemic and it could become a recipe for disaster, health advocates say. But more lawyers experiencing mental h
issues isn't a forgone conclusion.
By Victoria Hudgins (https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/author/pro le/Victoria-Hudgins/) | June 18, 2020 at 08:00 PM | The original version of th
was published on Law.com (/)


Law Firms Mentioned
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Vlp Law Group Llp (/search/?
q=Vlp+Law+Group+Llp&Submit=S

Kirkland & Ellis (/search/?
q=Kirkland+%26+Ellis&Submit=Se
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Trending Stories
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1 Texas Supreme Court Remin
Cities There Is No Pandemic
Exception to the Constitutio
(/texaslawyer/2020/05/20/t
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there-is-no-pandemic-
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TEXAS LAWYER (/TEXASLAWYER/)
(https://images.law.com/contrib/content/uploads/sites/292/2020/06/Working-
Stressed-Article-202006171828.jpg) 2 State Bar Group Calls for
'Mandatory' COVID-19
Already susceptible to mental health challenges, some lawyers’s stress levels are Vaccinations, Regardless of
Objections
being  ampli ed by the industry’s ongoing shift to remote work. (/newyorklawjournal/2020/0
bar-calls-for-mandatory-cov
Oftentimes, working remotely can allow the exibility to nd a good work-life 19-vaccinations-regardless-o
objections/)
balance. But mental health advocates warn that all that time spent at home can
NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL
also lead to undetected stress and feelings of isolation.  (/NEWYORKLAWJOURNAL/)

What’s more, some may nd themselves working more than ever from home. A 3 ‘This Is No Longer Secretary
Clinton’s State Department’
recent survey (https://www.law.com/2020/06/12/how-stressed-are-in-house- Judges Wary of Her
lawyers-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/)by the Association of Corporate Deposition Over Emails
(/nationallawjournal/2020/0
Counsel found that over half of in-house respondents are working more remotely is-no-longer-secretary-
than when they were in the o ce, with over 40% also experiencing anxiety. clintons-state-department-
judges-wary-of-her-depositio
over-emails/)
Still, law rms, corporations and individual attorneys themselves are in a good
NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
position to address these potential mental health issues head on. (/NATIONALLAWJOURNAL/)

4
 To be sure, remote work is far from new to the legal industry, and some attorneys Federal Judge Rules Agains
SEARCH New York's Outdoor Gatheri
have adjusted well to the freedom of not being (/) under the direct guise of their rm, (/newyorklawjournal/) MY AC
(/newyorklawjournal/search/)
Restrictions
noted Patrick Krill, founder of behavioral health consulting rm (/RANKINGS/)
for the legalCASES
industry (/newyorklawjournal/2020/0
COVID-19 (/TOPICS/COVID-19/) TOPICS (/TOPICS/) SURVEYS & RANKINGS (/NEWYORKLAWJOURNAL/CASE-DIGESTS/)
judge-rules-against-new-
Krill Strategies. yorks-outdoor-gathering-
restrictions/)
“Law rms have been moving toward allowing people to work remotely over the last NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL
few years (https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2018/12/05/working-remotely- (/NEWYORKLAWJOURNAL/)

is-on-the-rise-but-it-comes-with-its-share-of-downsides/) as a perk or bene t and Roberts Is Key Vote, as US

5
to increase their well-being,” Krill said. He added that for some, this meant forgoing Supreme Court Blocks
Louisiana Abortion Clinic La
long commutes and dealing with “less stress because they can attend to other (/newyorklawjournal/2020/0
aspects of their life.” is-key-vote-as-us-supreme-
court-blocks-louisiana-
Still, coronavirus-induced state shutdowns have left some lawyers out of the o ce abortion-clinic-law/)
NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
for months, meaning burnout from overworking can go unchecked. “Often when
(/NATIONALLAWJOURNAL/)
lawyers nd themselves with that extra time they tend to overwork and the lines
between work and home are blurred even more,” Krill added.
 
Timothy Bowers, managing partner of cloud-based VLP Law Group, advised that
FEATURED PRODUCT
rms shouldn’t look to have access to their attorneys 24-7 while they are working
remotely. For the attorneys newly initiated into remotely working, Bowers suggested A weekly, curated selection of our
international content from around
maintaining their pre-coronavirus schedule. “I think it’s really important for folks to the globe, across the business of
maintain some sort of routine that they had in the o ce.” law, in-house, regulatory,
technology and more, with expert
insights from our senior editors.
However, workload realities can make some routines unrealistic, said Kirkland & Ellis
director of wellbeing Learn More
(https://store.law.com/Registratio
(https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2019/05/29/kirkland-hires-lawyer- &productCode=LAWINTEDGLOBALL
turned-therapist-to-lead-new-wellness-e ort/) Robin Belleau, a lawyer and
licensed clinical professional counselor.

“You kept hearing the recommendation that you stick to your regular schedule and
when people couldn’t they felt bad but in actuality they were doing what they
needed to do,” she said.

Belleau believes that people need to be more exible in how they structure their
time when working at home with children and others.

While some are juggling multiple people’s needs and schedules, other lawyers can be
experiencing strong bouts of isolation while working through quarantines. But
some  rms have looked to address that by hosting “virtual happy hours
(https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2020/03/23/ rms-organise-virtual-
drinks-online-challenges-in-morale-boosting-e orts-397-32095/),” which can be a
useful tool for fostering engagement.

“Telling jokes and being social in a way to make that connection in a remote world
that we are used to but it’s important because we’re all online, [during] not just
COVID but the protests, Black Lives Matter issues, all the chaos in the world,” said
James Fisher II, founder and managing partner of virtual rm FisherBroyles. “We are
keeping tabs of everybody and have that human connection so to speak.”

Krill also stressed that it’s critical to stay connected and leverage video conference
platforms to spot any warning signs that may go unnoticed when an attorney is
communicating entirely through emails or phone calls.
 “It’s really important that someone working from home doesn’t go largely unseen for
SEARCH
(/) said, adding that during the pandemic,
large periods of time and it’s happening,” Krill (/newyorklawjournal/) MY AC
(/newyorklawjournal/search/)
attorneys
COVID-19can go two or three
(/TOPICS/COVID-19/) months
TOPICS withoutSURVEYS
(/TOPICS/) a manager seeing
& RANKINGS them.  ”There
(/RANKINGS/) CASES (/NEWYORKLAWJOURNAL/CASE-DIGESTS/)
needs to be nonnegotiable visual check-ins with people, not everyday, but certainly
regularly.”

But such check-ins also require more than just exchanging pleasantries. 

“This is true in-person but more so virtually: If you’re a partner or supervisor knowing
how to ask open-ended questions [is important],”  Belleau said. “I even defer to this
as a therapist. I will ask, ‘How are you doing?’ The typical answer is, ‘Fine.’ If you want
to get more information about how they’re doing, you want to ask an open-ended
question: ‘Tell me how your day is going.’ It’s an opening [for them to o er]
more details and insights into how they’re actually doing.”

 SHARE  SHARE

Victoria Hudgins

( https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/author/profile/Victoria-Hudgins/)

I am a reporter for Legaltech News, where I cover national and international cyber regulations and
legal tech innovations and developments.

More from this author  (https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/author/profile/Victoria-Hudgins/)

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