New York Lawyer
June 18, 2002

Q:
After seven years, as a criminal defense attorney, I'm newly divorced and feeling burned out.

What are some suggestions for a new occupation?

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A:
While yours is certainly a stressful practice discipline, extreme stress reactions seem to be endemic to the whole legal profession these days, whether one's practice focuses on criminal work, civil litigation, plaintiff's PI, transactional work, litigation management, or whatever (yes, trust and estates lawyers do generally report a lower level of ambient stress).

There seem to be more and greater stressors that ever before: the demand for more billable hours, the competition for new clients and business, the increasing jostling for limited partnership slots, the enmity between clients and their own lawyers, six-figure student loans, boom-bust economic cycles that rapidly throw certain practice disciplines (e.g., bankruptcy and real estate) in and out of favor.

One frazzled and disappointed junior associate put it succinctly: "The profession is no longer professional. No longer collegial, noble, collaborative, proud, prestigious, stable or secure. Other than that, things are fine."

Whether your divorce was precipitated by work-life imbalance or not, divorce is a huuge additional stressor, depleting stamina, health, sleep and self-esteem in almost equal measure. It's clearly a time to take specially good care of yourself -- which creates a major conflict if your work demands don't allow you time to lick your wounds.

In my view, it is very important to distinguish being stressed out from being burned out. Being stressed out is a function of having your Fight-or-Flight button pushed so constantly that your ability to recharge, reload, refresh and reframe gradually corrodes and shorts-out. The way one handles being stressed out is to remove oneself from the stressors -- whether by sabbatical, vacation, avocational activities, exercise, meditation or yoga. Or changing jobs.

Of course, throwing oneself back onto the same hot stove after a temporary cool-down period will produce increasingly short periods of relief. When lasting relief is not available, it may be time to rethink your employment priorities.

Burn-out, as the late Deborah Arron so succintly put it, is "the unacknowledged state of systematically putting other peoples' interests ahead of your own." It is, in effect, a pervasive, self-imposed guilt trip, exacerbated by all the clients reminding you that it is your responsibility to serve them -- responsively and responsibly. This form of pain will not go away if you try to rest; in fact it will tend to make you feel worse as you debate whether you are fundamentally selfish, egocentric, lazy or irresponsible.

Being stressed out and being burned out are not mutually exclusive, and folks with a pronounced calvinistic work ethic may find themselves falling prey to an ever-escalating workaholism. Not pleasant ... and not automatically resolved by a career shift, either.

If things have gotten so extreme for you that you are reflecting on new occupations or career paths, it is very important to diagnose your particular constellation of personal stressors, so you can make sure they are not an intrinsic component of any new employment you undertake.

For example, some folks are brought low by demands for attention to detail; others love it. Some get fried if asked to do routine or repetitive tasks. Some love chaos and variety; others have a very stressed reaction to ambiguity or uncertainty. Some love change, some hate it. Some hate being alone, others crave autonomy.

In your case, you should ask what it is about criminal defense work that you find particularly stressful. Is the freedom-vs-imprisonment stakes involved? Are you resistant to authority figures (judges)? Is it the volume of cases you must handle and prepare? Is it anxiety that the jury won't like you and buy your act? Is it clients who are ingrates or -- criminals?

Stressors and irritants to not have to be huge to be fundamental. The story of the princess and the pea tells us that relatively minor irritants, left unaddressed, eventually can create huge bruises.

Sucking it in, grinning and bearing it, or giving yourself stern motivational lectures will not alleviate stress. Stress is liking having your hand on a hot stove. It bids you to react. If you don't, your hand gets progressively more seriously burned -- and it's hard to listen to Mozart with the sound and smell of frying flesh commanding your attention.

I was a litigator in four different settings in 10 years (assistant district attorney, large firm defense lawyer, federal prosecutor, state mental health lawyer) before I woke up to a horrible truth: the problem wasn't with the work content or setting, it was with my own temperamental make-up. Specifically, I finally realized that I am incredibly averse to conflict -- not such a hot trait in a ritual warrior, eh?

Now in terms of vocational choice, stress can cause us to confuse reactive self-help measures with proactive motivational drivers. For example, I've heard plenty of large-firm litigators say things like, "I think I want to give back in a different way, to support my community's human services or cultural initiatives. I'm thinking of moving into not-for-profit management." What they really mean is, "I'm hellaciously stressed out, but I don't dare acknowledge that to anyone, so I'll try to put a noble face on my fatigue."

Some people actually achieve the career shift, only to find (after they have rested and de-stressed) that their choice flawed. When reactive needs are addressed, they tend to satiate, to disappear. But you may then find yourself stuck in the setting you leapt into in order to escape your pain. Now you've got new pain. There is great wisdom in the maxim, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

If you leave your current mode of practice, don't a) jump at the first "attractive" opportunity that crosses your line of sight; b) make irrevocable and fundamental shifts that can't be undone (don't burn all the bridges); and c) assume that an interim step that allows you to decompress will automatically be a long-term calling for you. You don't want to bounce wildly around the job market, but there is such a thing as a "stop-loss" job. In this case, the stop-loss deals with your health, your sanity, your resiliency, your ability to be optimistic, challenged and motivated.

Once the hot stove has cooled, your head is clear and your perspective is keen, then undertake a thorough self-assessment of your expertise, experience, motivational drivers, personal values, hot-buttons and turnoffs (as well as such "reality factors" as how much money you absolutely need to make, geography, student loan balance, job market and inferences others will draw from your prior career path. As I'm fond of saying, career choice comes down to three categories:

1. What am I capable of doing? [What value can I sell?]

2. What am I temperamentally suited to do? [What floats my boat -- really?]

3. What will the world let me do, given what I've done before?

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group