Outrunning Burnout

This month’s Wisconsin Lawyer magazine features an article by Paula Davis-Laack on burnout.  When I think of the word “burnout,” the first thought that comes to my mind is “I don’t have time for burnout.”  Maybe other lawyers and law students feel the same way–burnout is not an option.   

The article suggests five tips for preventing burnout:

1.  Increase your self-efficacy.
2.  Have creative outlets.
3.  Take care of yourself.
4.  Get support where you can find it.
5.  Identify your values.

What I like about these tips is that Ms. Davis-Laack comes at the problem of burnout from a constructive, positive angle.  The law profession is time-intensive and demanding, even though it is hugely rewarding.  The same can be said of law school.  Putting these tips into place seems fairly easy–simple habits to avoid big problems. 

By increasing your self-efficacy, the article says, you can help yourself to feel in control, and feeling in control reduces stress.  If you are in law school, start working on your outlines now–not at Thanksgiving. 

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Do Like a Lawyer

The start of the new academic year means a new group of first-year law students, ready for the three-year adventure that is law school. And each fall, those same students hear much about what they’re going to learn in law school. Usually the main thing they hear is that they will learn to “think like a lawyer.”

It’s certainly true that law school will teach students a particular way of thinking critically that will infuse all of their thinking from here forward. It’s also true that lawyers ought to be thinking critically. (So should everyone, in my view.) But law school should do more than teach students how to “think like a lawyer.” It should teach students how to “be” lawyers.

It is on this thought that I am reminded of Steven M. Radke, L’02.  The Law School invited Radke, vice president of government relations at Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co., to speak at its orientation event in fall 2006. Radke gave an entertaining and informative speech to that year’s entering class, the text of which can be found here. At one point, Radke discussed the often-stated law school goal of learning to “think like a lawyer,” a goal, he said, that is a bit troubling, particularly if it suggests that there is a single way lawyers think. He continued,

[I]f, God forbid, I someday find myself being wheeled into an emergency room, I hope the person preparing to operate on me doesn’t just think like a doctor.  I want him or her to be a doctor.

Radke’s point is spot on. Law school should not only teach students how to “think like a lawyer,” but it should also teach students how to be a lawyer. 

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Legal Education’s Loss and the Problem with CLE

Late last week David Hass, Wisconsin’s Director of Judicial Education, died unexpectedly. For 16 years Dave coordinated an innovative variety of excellent programs that updated judges on important developments while deepening their understanding of core legal principles. Dave was a warm, gracious man who will be missed.

Dave’s passing is an opportunity to reflect briefly on the sharp contrast between continuing education for judges and lawyers. My modest observations are informed by nearly thirty years of teaching to both groups and by my current perspective as chair of the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners, which regulates continuing lawyer education (CLE).

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