Resting Your Case – and Yourself

This year’s summer solstice has passed, and the Fourth of July weekend has come and gone. Have you taken – or at least planned – a vacation yet this year? For many lawyers, the answer appears to be “no.” An American Lawyer 2025 survey of 3,000 lawyers revealed that while about 36% said they use all their vacation time, 10% of lawyers said they take no time off at all. A 2024 survey conducted by Law360 Pulse found that more than 20% of lawyers planned to take one week or less vacation that year. Associates were even less likely to take time off: almost one-third reported they planned to take a week or less vacation time.

Why does this matter? Because the aforementioned studies also assessed lawyer mental health generally, and confirmed what we have known officially since 2017 when the ABA National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being issued its report: lawyers suffer from high amounts of stress that take a big toll on our physical and mental health, potentially leading to cardiac disorders, burnout, depression, anxiety disorders, or substance abuse. Chronic stress was reported by 38% of lawyers overall (and 47% of women lawyers) in the Law360 Pulse survey. Fifty-six percent of lawyers working more than 50 hours per week reported chronic stress. Although our awareness of the impact of stress on lawyer mental health has improved in the eight years since the ABA report, implementation of helpful policies to moderate stress has been slow.

So why don’t lawyers take more time off? Sadly, the culture at many firms tends to discourage or even penalize time off. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed by the American Lawyer said that their manager discouraged taking time off. One attorney reported that they didn’t want to go on vacation and have the firm see them as replaceable. Many lawyers cited pressure to make billable hours goals, client demands, not wanting to have work piling up while they’re gone, or a firm culture of being online 24/7 as preventing them from taking vacation time. Although associates may believe they can take some time off when they make partner, the extra demands of partnership may make taking time off an even bigger challenge.

While it is tempting to say that it is good for clients and for the legal profession to have lawyers available 24/7 for their clients, it is only a good thing if those lawyers are consistently at the top of their game. Probably this is not the case. Chronic stress has been shown to impair working memory, concentration, problem-solving ability, efficiency, social skills, and creativity – all skills necessary for good lawyering. Our brains need rest and relaxation to function properly over time, and vacations are a good way to interrupt chronic stress, relieve monotony, and let our brains reset, according to Susan Albers, PsyD, of the Cleveland Clinic. Vacations can decrease stress hormones like cortisol, and trigger release of hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, all of which contribute to a better mood, a sense of well-being, and improved cognitive function. Although a week or more off is ideal, even a day or two of leisure time can make a positive difference.

It will be difficult to shift the culture of the legal profession in a way that normalizes taking time off to rest and rejuvenate. But lawyers are logical people, and for the most part we have our clients’ best interests at heart. As the evidence accumulates that leisure time is essential to mental health and optimum brain function, we need to spread the word, take some time off, and encourage our colleagues to rest as well. It’s in everyone’s best interests.

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Looking Back, Giving Thanks

Sensenbrenner Hall Thanksgiving truly is an extraordinary celebration. Its invitation to pause and take inventory of the people whom and events in our life that we are grateful for quietly renews one’s spirit.

This year stood out as I looked back and gave thanks because my reflection is colored by my impending retirement after more than 29 years at Marquette University. I continue to be filled with a deep sense of gratitude for the people I’ve met during nearly three decades of assisting benefactors—men and women who stepped forward to make a difference in the lives of others.

Among the countless memories that come to mind, I want to offer one recent experience as illustrative of the grace that is an integral part of the fabric of philanthropy. Earlier this fall we received a generous six-figure gift from Adrian P. Schoone, Class of 1959. Adrian was born and raised in rural Lincoln County, Wisconsin. Rising from humble roots, he was the first in his family to attend college let alone pursue professional training, and yet he excelled as a student, being selected editor-in-chief of the Marquette Law Review and finishing first in his class.

The purpose of his gift is to fund an endowed scholarship that each year will support part of the tuition of the editor-in-chief of the Marquette Law Review. The award will be a fitting capstone for a third-year law student following in the footsteps of this distinguished alumnus who forged a career as a noted trial lawyer but later set his personal interests on hold, dedicating a year to travel throughout Wisconsin in service as state bar president. The story of this one gift speaks to a higher, shared value that the Law School seeks to instill in each future Marquette lawyer entrusted to our care. It speaks to the restless pursuit of excellence—a seed that germinates while one is a student but first comes to fruition over the full course of time.

This gift in a sense encapsulates many of my own hopes and aspirations of the past twenty years since joining Dean Kearney to work in partnership with Associate Dean Wilczynski-Vogel to help advance the mission of the Law School. Having held other positions within University Advancement for a decade, I was recruited to team up with the dean and Christine and many others to assist in the comprehensive fundraising effort that resulted in the building of Ray and Kay Eckstein Hall—still regarded as the finest law school facility in the nation.

What I did not realize at the time I said yes, in 2005, was how profound this decision would soon become not only for me personally but for scores of others who are the true beneficiaries of three decades of collective labor. I am truly a better person for having had this privilege to serve. Memories abound—enjoying the best Reuben sandwich served up in Cassville, Wisconsin, with the late Ray and Kay Eckstein, musky fishing the Flambeau River with Marquette lawyers, or meeting the late Justice Antonin Scalia with Bob Greenheck. My career has taken me to places never imagined. For all these experiences and so much more, I am grateful.

Most of all, I am moved by what our benefactors do so willingly for our students. I will speak to them directly in closing: Your generosity speaks to a higher love—one predicated on your belief and hope in the next generation of Marquette lawyers and their ability to make this world a better place. I join you in your optimism for the future—a life lesson gleaned from looking back and giving thanks.

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Congratulations to WAAL Scholarship Winners Carson, Jordan, and Medcalf

On Thursday, September 22, 2022, the Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers (WAAL) honored three Marquette University Law School students with scholarship awards.

VelanDale Scholarship
WAAL is proud to honor the career and legacy of the late Vel and Dale Phillips for the last thirty-two years. In 1990, WAAL established a scholarship in the name of the late W. Dale Phillips to provide scholarships to African-American law students at Wisconsin’s two law schools, Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin. In 2004, WAAL proudly renamed the scholarship the VelanDale Scholarship Award to include and honor Vel Phillips’ outstanding accomplishments. Vel Phillips passed away in 2018 and Dale in 1988, but their community work and legacy will forever live on. Each year, WAAL awards two law students from our law schools in Wisconsin with this honor.

This year’s award winners are Carolyn Carson (3L) and Josiah Jordan (2L).

head shot of dark-skinned woman with curly hair and a big smile, wearing a white shirt and black suit jacket
Carolyn Carson, 3L

Carolyn Carson is a 3L. She has been a Law Clerk at Stafford Rosenbaum since the sumnmer. Carson, who is interested in business law, is a member of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) and the Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers (WAAL). She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University, where she double-majored in Communication and Spanish. She received her MBA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; while there, she placed 1st at the International Ethics Case Competition.

Carson said her proudest professional moment was winning the Brewed Ideas Challenge, a Marquette University version of Shark Tank. Carson’s pitch was based on a haircare business she and her mother started called Nubian’s Way.

Continue ReadingCongratulations to WAAL Scholarship Winners Carson, Jordan, and Medcalf
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