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The Power of Speech – Register Today!


Law schools play a pivotal role in shaping future leaders, and now, more than ever, the need for civility, ethics, and active engagement is paramount. Baylor Law is proud to invite you to a half-day symposium dedicated to enhancing professionalism and civility within law schools.

This event promises enriching discussions and insights to empower our future legal professionals to be positive difference-makers from day one.

Don’t miss this virtual opportunity to engage with thought leaders and experts in the field and gain invaluable knowledge that will shape the future of legal education.

– Leah


Welcoming Remarks

Patricia Wilson
Interim Dean and William Boswell Chair of Law, Baylor Law



The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Discussing the importance of freedom of speech and the consideration of techniques for encouraging law students and lawyers to approach the exercise of the right to free speech in a civil and professional manner to promote healthy and informed interactions.

Introduced by:
Leah Teague, Professor and Director of Leadership Program, Baylor Law

Moderated by:
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkley School of Law, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law 

  • Deborah Enix-Ross, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Immediate Past ABA President
  • Mark Alexander, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, President, AALS
  • April Barton, Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law, Chair, AALS Leadership Section
  • Sudha Setty, CUNY School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law


Creating a Culture of Civility

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.

Introduced by:

Introduced by:
Lee Fisher, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law

Moderated by:
Kellye Testy, President and CEO, Law School Admissions Council (Panel Moderator)

  • Louis D. Bilionis, Cincinnati College of Law, Dean Emeritus and Droege Professor of Law
  • Timothy W. Floyd, Mercer University School of Law, Tommy Malone Distinguished Chair in Trial Advocacy and Director of Experiential Education
  • Tania Luma, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Assistant Dean, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Leah Teague, Baylor University School of Law, Professor of Law and Director of Leadership Development Program


Join Baylor Law in welcoming award-winning author and renowned constitutional scholar Professor Akhil Amar discusses the historical underpinnings of Texas becoming a state, how civil discourse about important issues played a role in Texas’ formation, and why our modern First Amendment right to free speech is critical to our future success. Professor Amar will offer his insight into the key role the Federalist Papers and historical events play in understanding the importance our Founding Fathers placed on civil discourse. By better understanding our history, we will be better able to meaningfully engage with each other in the present day.

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The Power of Speech


Law schools, now more than ever, need to prepare their students to be active, engaged, civil, ethical leaders and difference-makers from the moment they graduate.

Please join us for a half-day symposium to consider how to enhance professionalism and civility within law school environments. Immediately following the two virtual panel discussions, we invite you to stay online for the Ninth Annual Starr Federalists Papers Lecture Series with Prof. Akhil Amar as he offers his insight into the historical underpinnings of the right to free speech and the importance of civil discourse. 

– Leah


Welcoming Remarks

Patricia Wilson
Interim Dean and William Boswell Chair of Law, Baylor Law



The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Discussing the Importance of freedom of speech and the consideration of techniques for encouraging law students and lawyers to approach the exercise of the right to free speech in a civil and professional manner to promote healthy and informed interactions.

Introduced by:
Leah Teague, Professor and Director of Leadership Program, Baylor Law

Moderated by:
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkley School of Law, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law 

  • Deborah Enix-Ross, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Immediate Past ABA President
  • Mark Alexander, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, President, AALS
  • April Barton, Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law, Chair, AALS Leadership Section
  • Sudha Setty, CUNY School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law


Creating a Culture of Civility

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.

Introduced by:

Introduced by:
Lee Fisher, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law

Moderated by:
Kellye Testy, President and CEO, Law School Admissions Council (Panel Moderator)

  • Louis D. Bilionis, Cincinnati College of Law, Dean Emeritus and Droege Professor of Law
  • Timothy W. Floyd, Mercer University School of Law, Tommy Malone Distinguished Chair in Trial Advocacy and Director of Experiential Education
  • Tania Luma, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Assistant Dean, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Leah Teague, Baylor University School of Law, Professor of Law and Director of Leadership Development Program

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.



Join Baylor Law in welcoming award-winning author and renowned constitutional scholar Professor Akhil Amar discusses the historical underpinnings of Texas becoming a state, how civil discourse about important issues played a role in Texas’ formation, and why our modern First Amendment right to free speech is critical to our future success. Professor Amar will offer his insight into the key role the Federalist Papers and historical events play in understanding the importance our Founding Fathers placed on civil discourse. By better understanding our history, we will be better able to meaningfully engage with each other in the present day.

Academia, Leadership

A reminder from our friends in the AALS Balance & Well-Being Section for their Final Speed-Share Session

All,

I hope everyone is enjoying our final weeks of summer!  I am writing to remind you that the *FINAL* session of the AALS Balance & Well-Being Section’s Summer Speed-Share Series will take place today Wednesday, August 9, at 3 pm ET. 

In this session, Practical Wisdom for Promoting Law Student Well-Being, students will share practical wisdom that helped them maintain and/or regain their well-being in law school, as well as advice for how law school faculty and staff can most effectively convey these insights and promote law student well-being.  The panelists will also share tips for supporting non-traditional students. 

You can register here: https://www.aals.org/sections/list/balance-well-being-in-legal-education/practical-wisdom/ 

We hope you will join us!

 For more information, please contact Natalie Netzel ([email protected]) or Danielle Kocal ([email protected]).

LEAH

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Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business by Carrie Kerpen

Guest Post by Baylor Law Student, Paige Heitkamp


As a group, we lawyers do not like to fail! But as Michael Jordan once said, “The key to success is failure.” In our leadership development class, we use a quote from Michael Jordan to make that point. The six-time NBA champion and five-time MVP said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. “We use that quote during the “Leadership of  Self” segment of our leadership development class as we instruct our students that their success, as well as their personal well-being, will depend on learning how not to fear failure but to view it as an ordinary and necessary part of growth. We encourage them to fail gracefully.

Imagine my delight when one of our students this summer, Paige Heitkamp, wrote a book review that includes a new perspective on how to fail. Among the helpful tips offered to women by Carrie Kerpen in her book Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business is the advice to fail fantastically! We hope you enjoy Paige’s discussion of the book and its other helpful tips.

– Leah


Carrie Kerpen’s book, Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business, was great. The book focuses on topics meant to help women better themselves professionally and personally. To write this book, Carrie interviewed fifty of the “boldest women in business” to learn their stories and how they became to be one of these women. The book is divided into three parts: Work It Professionally, Work It Passionately, and Work It Practically.

Work It Professionally focuses on tips for women to advance their careers and make the best out of their skills, improve on these skills, and learn new skills. These tips are focused on women in the workplace. They offer unique perspectives from women who have earned their place in the business world. These women all share how much different it can be for women to advance their careers than men. Many leadership and business “help” books, whether incidentally or not, focus on broad tips primarily designed for men. Women have to work harder to advance their careers and make themselves known, so, as a woman, being given tips from women can be incredibly helpful and much more beneficial. This section focuses on getting hired, how to grow your career, networking, and asking for raises. Each of these subtopics has stories from several of the women Carrie interviewed, giving different perspectives from each of these women as to how they succeeded in that subtopic. Having tips from multiple women is incredibly beneficial because everyone is different, and one woman’s methods may not work for another. Getting perspectives from many different women is incredibly beneficial so you can find the strategy you best connect with.

Work It Passionately focuses on tips and strategies for women regarding making the “right decisions” in life, whether it be about your career, personal life, or even your family life. It not only focuses on how to weigh the pros and cons of these decisions and come to the right outcome, but it also focuses on how to get to the position you need to be in even to have the ability to make these decisions. This section focuses on helping you decide when to trust your gut, when to rely on your rational thinking skills, and how to use a combination of both to succeed. Like the previous section, each subtopic has stories from multiple women offering their unique perspectives on the various issues. It is essential, again, to read all of these different perspectives, but each woman is different in her own unique way, and skills that work for one may not work for another. One important subtopic in this section was how to “fail fantastically.” This is an important message because failure is daunting, and many women are afraid to try something out of fear of failure. This book teaches you that failure is normal and should be expected. No one gets it right on the first try, and if you’re going to fail, fail fantastically.

The final section, Work It Practically, was the most important section. This section deals with the “hard stuff” that women are not only afraid to talk about but also the things that women tend to deal with more in the workplace than men. This section focuses on inspiration and strategies for women to navigate specific obstacles and challenges unique to women in the workplace. This section focuses on relatively taboo topics such as family planning, work/life balance, how to dress, how women are “expected” to behave in the workplace, and how to deal with sexism and discrimination not only from male coworkers and bosses but also from female coworkers and bosses. As with the previous two sections, each subtopic has inspiring and motivational stories from several women on Carrie’s “Boldest Women in Business” list. Each woman in this section told their story and gave numerous tips and tricks on overcoming these uniquely female challenges in the workplace and at home. The subtopic, “Make Lemonade,” teaches women how to make the best of dealing with these difficult issues. This subtopic teaches women not to be afraid to tell people close to them what is happening in their life and that it is okay to lean on others.

Overall, this book was incredibly inspiring. All women, no matter where they are in their careers and lives, can benefit from the numerous perspectives offered in this book. This book is not the typical leadership or business “help” book. This book says there is no one key to success but that finding the best strategy for you is the most important “key” to success.

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My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams

Guest Post by Baylor Law Student, Daniella McDonagh


The following post is a book review written by Daniella McDonagh, a student in our Winter 2022-23 Leadership Class. In Chapter 21 of Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership, we encourage students to view life as a lawyer as a lifelong pursuit of purposeful learning and growth as they serve, influence, and impact their clients and communities.  Daniella writes about lessons and advice she finds in My Own Words, a biographical collection of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s speeches, articles, and lectures. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

– Leah


Advocate, way-paver, justice seeker, and fighter are all qualities that commonly come to mind when thinking of a successful leader like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But, what may not come to mind as commonly, is the quality of being an eternal student. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg illuminates that besides these common qualities of a leader, the quality of being an eternal student made Bader Ginsburg the “Notorious RBG” and the inspiring leader that she was and continues to be remembered for today.

Bader Ginsburg was a student of leaders who came before her, illuminating little-known historical figures and spotlighting those who helped pave the way for her own opportunities and accomplishments. She appreciated the paths marked by others – others whose names are unknown and overlooked, such as Belva Lockwood, who was the first woman to gain admission to the United States Supreme Court Bar, and Arabella Mansfield, the first woman to gain admission to practice law in the United States; and Florence Allen, the first woman to serve on an Article III federal court. Bader Ginsburg recognized that to be a future leader, and she must study the leaders – both the famously revered and the nameless unknowns – of the past.

Additionally, she studied social movements, like the civil rights movement, to mimic the strategy of educating judicial audiences in measured movements in ways digestible by and appeasing to the decision-makers on the matter. Bader Ginsburg also expanded her studies to other legal systems – she studied what other leaders did well and what could be improved if similar methods were applied to American systems and leaders.

Like any successful leader, Bader Ginsburg was a student of the audience – she studied her audience to best understand how to communicate productively and effect change in dissenting minds. She demonstrated this best when seeking change in contentious areas, such as women’s rights and civil rights, during the peak of controversy. Bader Ginsburg recognized that speaking to all audiences as though addressing one’s home crowd could be counterproductive. She proved that productive communication and effective change only occurs when leaders study their audiences and cater to the specific thought processes, concerns, and priorities of the audience.

Bader Ginsburg was also a student of words – she understood the powerful presence of the right words at the right time and the power of silence. She especially demonstrated this wisdom and balance of speech and silence through her dissenting opinions. Throughout her career on the Supreme Court bench, there were terms where Bader Ginsburg did not author any dissents, but that was not for lack of anything to say. Instead, she recognized that when she did use her voice, her words would be given more weight and garner more attention than those justices whose voices traditionally dominate and overwhelm the discussion. Furthermore, when she did dissent, she emphasized the importance of disagreeing with civility. Bader Ginsburg demonstrated that leaders bring dissenters to the light; leaders do not fault dissenters for being wrong. To put this into practice, she would transform from the student to the teacher and teach the other justices everything she learned and understood on this topic through her experience as an open-minded, absorbent student.

What was noticeably absent from Bader Ginsburg’s My Own Words, was her own words about herself. Bader Ginsburg exemplified a true student leader in that she focused on the achievements of other people, other movements, and other legal systems, but neglected to acknowledge her own remarkable achievements as a leader. I recommend My Own Words for those seeking to improve their leadership skills because Bader Ginsburg does not tell you how to be a leader, nor does she tell you how she herself is a leader; instead, she actively embodied what a leader is with every word she wrote and every word she spoke. This book does not lay out a five-point plan that people are unlikely to follow, nor does it suggest theoretical advice that is impractical to implement. Rather, this book provides a glimpse into the thoughts and opinions of an exceptional leader and demonstrates the remarkable result of dedicating your life to something so simple and achievable – being a student.

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Join the Professional Identity Formation Conversation

We encourage you to Zoom in Thursday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m. Central to join host Robin Thorner, Assistant Dean, Office of Career Strategy, at St. Mary’s Law School, and other law faculty and staff interested in professional identity formation efforts to continue the national conversation about professional identity formation.

The work on professional identity formation aligns closely with our leadership development efforts. At Baylor Law, professional identity formation is the first of our three objectives, which are to encourage and assist law students to:

  1. Embrace their professional identity as they serve clients and society;
  2. Develop competencies and skills to succeed; and
  3. Boldly seek opportunities to make a difference in the profession, their communities, and the world.

In a post this week on the Holloran Center Professional Identity Implementation Blog (stthomas.edu), I share how our friends and colleagues at the Holloran Center continue to inform and influence our leadership work. Their scholarship and advice drew my attention to the third dimension of professional education described in Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (the “Carnegie Report”): “Professional identity formation is defined as “effective ways to engage and make their own the ethical standards, social roles, and responsibilities of the profession, grounded in the profession’s fundamental purposes.” Through those interactions, we became more committed to helping law students see themselves as having both important obligations to serve society as lawyers and incredible opportunities as leaders to make a difference in the lives of others.

Our thanks to the Holloran Center for their continued work and camaraderie! I hope you can join the next PIF conversation this Thursday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m. via Zoom.

– Leah

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Training Students in Civil Discourse: New Public Deliberation Workshop Developed as Part of ABA Standard 303 Efforts

The recent amendments to ABA Standard 303(b) (development of a professional identity) & (c) (education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism) did not require major adjustments to our programming at Baylor Law. Still, a 303 Committee was appointed to ensure and document our compliance. With a mission to “train lawyers who are able to practice law with competence, serve with compassion, and provide effective and ethical leadership,” we have long been dedicated to the notion that our job does not end with teaching basic concepts of law and legal analysis. With a tradition of incorporating a significant amount of practical skills training, the concept of professionalism is baked into the DNA of a Baylor Law education. With that said, we recognized eight years ago that we needed to be more intentional in our professional development training. In 2014, we created our Professional Development Program and our Leadership Development Program to be more intentional in preparing students for the modern challenges of being a member of our time-honored profession.

The 303 Committee’s review of our curriculum and programming confirmed numerous ways in which Baylor Law develops law students’ professionalism. But the Committee did not stop there. More can and should be done and we spent the summer exploring enhancements and additions to our programming. This post highlights one of those new programs. Beginning with the Fall 2022 entering class, all entering students will participate in a public deliberation workshop.

What is public deliberation and why should law students learn how to do it?

The public expects lawyers to be zealous advocates for their clients, but sometimes a lawyer’s conduct goes beyond zealous advocacy and crosses the line of civility. Not only does ill-mannered conduct reflect poorly on our profession, but it also contributes to the normalizing of disrespectful, uncivil, and polarizing reactions to viewpoints and statements with which a person does not agree.

Lawyers’ professional obligation extends beyond individual clients to our system of justice and to society. As stated in the preamble to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct: A Lawyer’s Responsibility, “[a] lawyer is a representative of the clients, an officer of the legal system, and a public citizen having a special responsibility for the quality of justice.” Since the beginning of this nation, lawyers have recognized that their special status comes with a professional responsibility to address pressing issues facing society. A lawyer’s legal education and training provide the opportunity to be change agents and difference makers not only for their clients but also in their communities and across the nation. These professional obligations and opportunities for influence call for lawyers to model civil discourse and to be able to facilitate deliberation in a calm and respectful manner.

This workshop teaches our students a different way to approach advocacy – one that helps them embody professionalism, model civility, and advocate more effectively.

“Deliberation involves the best parts of dialogue (conversational) and debate (argument) to offer an experience where participants can learn from one another by talking through different perspectives and approaches to local and global issues and working together to come up with community action steps.

BAYLOR PUBLIC DELIBERATION INITIATIVE

We want this experience to occur early in law school so they recognize that civility and professionalism are not antithetical to zealously representing a client. We also hope the experience will inspire and enable students to approach some of the most potentially heated issues debated in the public square (e.g. race, religion and its role in society, sexual orientation, gun rights or gun control, among others) with a desire to build community through shared values, solve problems and build a better tomorrow.

Public Deliberation Workshop Required for Entering Students

Beginning with the Fall 2022 quarter, each entering student at Baylor Law will be introduced to a model for civil discourse through a workshop developed in partnership with Baylor University’s Public Deliberation Initiative.  Dr. Joshua Ritter, Director of the Public Deliberation Initiative, described the workshop as a “partnership for training law students as active deliberative citizens with democratic skillsets they can implement within their own communities and leadership.” 

The 1 ½ hour workshop began with a video from the Dean to explain the importance of the effort and to give some context. After some initial remarks and instructions by Dr. Ritter, the law students were divided into groups of 10-12 and given an issue for discussion. Different topics can be used but it needs to be one that generally elicits a wide range of differing views. We used food insecurity for our first workshop.

Facilitating each group is a second- or third-year law student who participated in a 2- hour training session with Dr. Ritter. The facilitators keep the group on task while remaining neutral. The goal is not to change anyone’s mind on the particular issue, but simply for each participant to hear and to be heard on the issue.

Through this interactive exercise, we hope to demonstrate to students that individuals with diametrically opposed positions often share common values but they may prioritize those values differently.  We also recognize the benefit to the law school environment. Creating a culture of respect for colleagues with different life experiences and perspectives will enrich our classrooms and programs.

Please contact us for more information on this program. 

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New Professional Identity Book Guides Law School Faculty and Staff

Neil W. Hamilton and Louis D. Bilionis continue their all-star efforts to guide and support law school faculty and staff tasked with meeting the new requirements in ABA Standard 303. Their new book, Law Student Professional Development and Formation: Bridging Law School, Student, and Employer Goals (Cambridge University Press, 2022) is now available to help those charged with providing substantial opportunities for the development of their students’ professional identity, as well as education on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism. The book has received praises and endorsements from many deans and professors, including Professors Patrick Longan, Daisy Hurst Floyd, and Timothy W. Floyd who just published a book review in the July/August NALP Bulletin (viewable by members only). As explained in that review, “[t]he book is aimed primarily at law school professors and administrators who understand professional identity and appreciate its importance but who are at schools where professional identity formation has not yet taken root. For members of that audience, the book provides wise advice about how to proceed step-by-step and a detailed look at the best practices for promoting professional identity formation.”

Highlights of the Hamilton and Bilionis book were shared in a two-part article published in the May and June NALP Bulletins. Because of the importance of the topic and the value of their work, those two articles are available to the public as NALP Bulletin highlights: Revised ABA Standards 303(b) and (c) and the Formation of a Lawyer’s Professional Identity, Part 1: Understanding the New Requirements, and Revised ABA Standards 303(b) and (c) and the Formation of a Lawyer’s Professional Identity, Part 2: Action Steps to Benefit Students, Law Schools, and the Legal Profession. I understand Part 3 will be published soon!

In their work, Hamilton and Bilionis encourage law schools to start with a group of enthusiastic faculty and staff who are already interested and then empower them to engage in professional identity work that will meet the students “where they are.” Their book provides a plan for creating programming that will benefit “students, legal employers, clients, the legal system, and the law school.” Their goal is to assist law schools as they effectively and practically address the new 303(c) requirement. They note ABA Standard Interpretation 303-5 which recognizes that the work of “developing a professional identity requires reflection and growth over time,” and therefore, law schools should provide students with “frequent opportunities for such development during each year of law school and in a variety of courses and co-curricular and professional development activities.”

As Longan, Floyd and Floyd add, “[i]n Law Student Professional Development and Formation: Bridging Law School, Student, and Employer Goals, Professors Hamilton and Bilionis have done legal education a tremendous service by setting forth the opportunities for professional identity formation in this moment and providing a practical playbook for taking advantage of those opportunities, even in the face of some expected institutional resistance.”

This is critically important work in legal education!  We appreciate all of you for your dedication to better preparing law students for their future work as professionals and leaders.  

– Leah

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Leading Without Authority

Have you ever been in a situation where your ideas or concerns, as expressed to those in authority, did not lead to action? Did it leave you feeling dissatisfied and powerless? Many of us have found ourselves in these frustrating situations– or even hopeless– because we had no authority to change the situation. Keith Ferrazzi’s book, Leading Without Authority, is written to encourage and empower us as leaders and influencers, especially in situations where we have no title, position, or power of authority to act.

Ferrazzi frames a new dynamic for leadership that encourages those in a follower position, and even those in a leadership position, to use collaborative approaches to problem-solving that redefine the traditional power paradigm. Ferrazzi places this new framework on our ability to create our own team, identify our own goals, and effect change. It is packed with strategies and approaches to leading without authority, not only for those who teach leadership but particularly important for law students and young lawyers who have not reached a point in their career to hold traditional leadership power or positions.

We highly encourage you to pick up or download a copy and recommend it to your law students. The lessons in it will help them, starting with their internships and clerkships this summer.

– Liz and Stephen

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High Expectations

By Pat Wilson

But wait, If I could shake the crushing weight of expectations
Would that free some room up for joy
Or relaxation, or simple pleasure?

Perhaps you recognize these lyrics from the song “Surface Pressure,” from the Disney movie, Encanto, which is a profound yet utterly entertaining movie for both adults and children, in case you missed it. This song in particular captures what it can mean when the expectations we have for ourselves or that others have for us start to weigh us down. 

High expectations are especially true for lawyers and the law students with whom we interact. We and they were the high achievers through grade school, high school, and college. Of course, the expectations are high because we are the ones that gained admission to law school, and law school is nothing if not an environment teeming with pressure. Law school is only the beginning as the pressure on lawyers continues to grow for them to represent their clients well and bring their matters to a successful conclusion while juggling the myriad obligations of family, household, community service, and on and on.

Of the 13,000 attorneys surveyed by the American Bar Association as part of a study it conducted, 21% qualify as problem drinkers, which is nearly double the rate for other highly educated professionals. Twenty-eight percent struggle with depression, while 19% have symptoms of anxiety. The survey found that two-thirds of women reported severe stress as compared to 49% of men; some 23% of women reported moderate or severe anxiety compared to 15% of men.

The statistics for law students are similarly grim. A survey of 3300 law students, summarized in the ABA report, disclosed that 53% of law students got drunk in the prior 30 days and 45% binge drank at least once in the prior two weeks. Seventeen percent of students reported suffering from depression, while 14% reported severe anxiety, and 23% reported mild or moderate anxiety.

The ABA study does not suggest the cause for these various results, but one has to wonder if they are not due in part to the pressure of being a lawyer or a law student. 

So where does this lead us? Possibly to the obvious conclusion but one that bears repeating: we must strive to have more realistic expectations for ourselves and to model for our students the importance of not trying to do it all and have it all. I am of the strong belief that we can’t have it all, and no one should expect us to try. Much like a prix fixe menu, one can choose among the various options, but a choice here forecloses a different choice there. The fact that one opts for the prix fixe menu does not signal weakness. Rather, it means that one is much less likely to overeat to a state of discomfort. 

Maybe the best we can do for our students is to encourage our students to set high goals but strive to be realistic—not everyone will grade on to law review or snag the “high A” in every course, and that’s okay. It seems we also have an obligation to continue to remind students of the importance of taking care of their own mental health and being alert to the stressors that may be affecting their peers—we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in that regard. Of course, we need to take care of our own mental health and be sensitive to students who may be struggling.

Finally, as trite as it seems, we need to encourage our students to stop and smell the roses. We ought to, and our students should be encouraged to, seek things that bring them joy or simple pleasure. It might help relieve some of the pressure we face.

– PW