Written By Lily Goodman L’27
Introduction
We have more information today about the importance of mental and physical well-being than ever before. However, many workers still experience chronic burnout in the legal profession, which creates conditions that increase the risk of ethical violations by undermining an attorney’s judgment, competence, and communication.
A wide range of our ethical rules cannot be met if we neglect our well-being and succumb to the physical or mental impacts of chronic stress. When attorney well-being is low, the effects extend beyond the individual and can have lasting consequences for others, which goes against our code of ethics.[1] Lawyer well-being is not merely an amenity, but an ethical responsibility required by our rules of professional conduct.[2]
Burnout’s Structural Strain on the Legal Profession
83% of American workers suffer from work-related stress.[3] Some stress at work can be beneficial, especially in an industry with high-stakes matters and non-negotiable deadlines.[4] A healthy amount of stress propels us to meet those deadlines and stay focused, which is necessary to diligently advocate for our clients.[5]
However, extensive and prolonged stress can negatively affect a worker’s physical and mental health as well as the overall success of a workplace.[6] This type of stress causes burnout.[7] Burnout is our body’s response to chronic stressful working conditions, which leads to depletion.[8] The impacts of burnout can persist indefinitely and can create both mental and physical health complications for workers.[9] Burnout differs from normal stress because of its prolonged effects, heavier impact on emotions, and more drastic measures required for recovery.[10] One study found that 54% of workers report that their work stress impacts their home life.[11] Another study revealed that 120,000 reported in the US occur each year as a result of workplace stress.[12]
Law was found to be the single most stressful occupation in a data analysis conducted by the Washington Post.[13] This stress load makes attorneys more susceptible to burnout than other professions. 10-12% of attorneys have contemplated suicide, as compared to the American population average of 4.2%.[14] The root cause of these contemplations has been overcommitment to work and high stress.[15] Many attribute the higher rates of attorney stress to the demands of their employment. Accordingly, chronic stress has been normalized within the legal profession. But it can have serious consequences for attorneys, firms, and clients alike.[16]
In a conversation with the University of Richmond School of Law’s Director of Professional Identity Formation and professor of professional responsibility, Janice Craft, she observed well-being in the legal profession is often framed as “an individual responsibility,” rather than as an institutional obligation.[17] She emphasized that firms and legal institutions must examine their own “practices and expectations and standards” to determine whether they are contributing to burnout.[18]
Indeed, conditions like billable hours, constant quick turnarounds, and the adversarial nature of the work create an environment that poses a much greater risk for chronic stress to develop into something more.[19] The pressure to stay connected to electronics at all times, excessive workloads, and low tolerances for error are additional persistent stressors that can heighten risk levels.[20] These systemic structures create a culture that normalizes , posing risks to attorneys and, by extension, to clients.
Functional Consequences of Burnout
Physiological and psychological symptoms produced from burnout can impair an attorney’s ability to complete vital functions of their job.[21] Physiological health impacts can include the overactivation of vital functions and damage to the immune system and metabolism.[22] Sometimes these symptoms of burnout can result in hospitalization due to cardiovascular incidents or the contraction of infectious diseases.[23] This result can require an attorney to be away from work to address their medical complications. Thankfully, the legal community and court system are generally understanding when unforeseen serious medical issues arise. However, some physical health issues may not result in hospitalization but may impair an individual’s ability to work effectively within the same timeframe as someone without those limitations.[24] These include intense headaches, sleep deprivation, and musculoskeletal pain, which can all leave an attorney significantly impaired.[25]
The psychological health implications of burnout are grave and often go unseen and untreated until a major indicating event occurs.[26] Psychological health implications resulting from burnout include anxiety, depression, substance abuse, insomnia, decreased motivation, and fatigue.[27] In a study on legal professionals and their development of mental health issues over the course of their legal career, 61% reported anxiety and 45% reported depression.[28] Unfortunately, mental health declines often go unseen and untreated until a major indicating event occurs.[29] In the same study, attorneys’ drinking habits were analyzed, which revealed that 36% of male and 39% of female attorneys have hazardous drinking habits.[30] Unsurprisingly, only 6% of those surveyed had received treatment for substance abuse.[31] The main reasons cited for failure to obtain treatment were the fear of others finding out they needed help and concerns over confidentiality.[32] Although vast improvements have been made, our society is overall less sympathetic to mental health issues than physical ones. These physical and psychological effects of burnout have consequences that extend beyond the individual lawyer.
Ethical Duties at Risk
Burnout has direct implications for professional responsibility, since the ethical rules require a lawyer’s capacity to exercise competence, diligence, and communication.[33] However, burnout directly challenges a struggling attorney’s ability to exercise these capacities, making compliance difficult.[34]
Rule 1.1 Competence[35]
Competence depends on cognitive and professional functioning, which burnout compromises. Competence is often discussed as possessing the relevant legal knowledge of the subject matter pertaining to the issue that the client is seeking resolve.[36] However, the line is not drawn there. Competence also includes the necessary preparation, attention, and judgment to properly represent a client.[37] Chronic fatigue and cognitive overload are consequences of burnout that can impair decision-making.[38] Further, brain fog and reduced focus can affect strategic thinking and responsiveness.[39] These are functional baselines that ethical competence assumes, but burnout inhibits. These types of ethical failures are a result of diminished capacity and not merely a lack of legal expertise.
Rule 1.3 Diligence[40]
Legal culture pushes attorneys to work hard, at all costs. Often equating extreme exhaustion with commitment. This culture can mask early warning signs of burnout and lead to its escalation. Burnout leads to decreased productivity, delayed response times, and avoidance.[41] The line is hard to draw between intentional neglect and depletion caused by chronic stress.[42] Unfortunately, both produce equally negative consequences for clients. Our ethical duties do not disappear even when capacity declines, which makes prevention and early detection of burnout especially vital in our profession.
Rule 1.4 Communication[43]
Failure to fulfill communication duties under Rule 1.4 is among the most common disciplinary complaints lawyers face.[44] Effective communication depends on an attorney’s presence, ability to listen, and ability to articulate clearly with the client.[45] As a result of the detachment that individuals experience as a result of burnout, patience, attentiveness, and responsiveness are all depleted.[46] Emotional dysregulation can lead attorneys to rush conversations, provide incomplete explanations, and reduce their capacity for empathy.
Conclusion
The Rules of Professional Responsibility presume a baseline level of functioning that attorneys cannot meet when facing burnout. The normalization of chronic stress in the legal profession places attorneys, firms, and clients at risk of consequences for failure to comply with the rules. Maintaining professional responsibility is inseparable from maintaining attorney well-being. Therefore, a shift in the legal profession from viewing well-being as a luxury to a responsibility is essential.
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Photo Citation: Anna Shvets, Stressed Woman Covering Her Face With Her Hands (April 23, 2020), Pexels, https://www.pexels.com/photo/stressed-woman-covering-her-face-with-her-hands-4226221/ (last visited Feb. 22, 2026).
[1] See generally Model Rules of Pro. Conduct (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[2] See Model Rules of Pro. Conduct (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[3] See Workplace Stress, U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Admin., https://www.osha.gov/workplace-stress.
[4] See Long-Term Stress Harms Everyone in the Workplace, U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Admin., https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/Long-Term_Stress_Harms_Workplace_Stress_Toolkit_revised_508.pdf.
[5] See id.
[6] See id.
[7] See Sergio Edú-Valsania et al., Burnout: A Review of Theory and Measurement, 19 Int’l J. Env’t Rsch. & Pub. Health 1780 (2022), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8834764/.
[8] See id.
[9] See id.
[10] See The American Institute of Stress, Emotional Burnout vs Stress: Doctor Explains How to Tell the Difference (May 14, 2025), https://www.stress.org/news/emotional-burnout-vs-stress-doctor-explains-how-to-tell-the-difference/ (last visited Feb. 14, 2026).
[11] See Workplace Stress, U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Admin., https://www.osha.gov/workplace-stress.
[12] See id.
[13] See Andrew Van Dam, The Happiest, Least Stressful, Most Meaningful Jobs in America, Wash. Post (Jan. 6, 2023), https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/01/06/happiest-jobs-on-earth/.
[14] Monique White, Attorney Well-Being: A Pressing Concern for the Legal Profession, Am. Bar Ass’n (Nov. 20, 2024), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/resources/newsletters/solo-small-firm/attorney-well-being-a-pressing-concern-for-the-legal-profession/.
[15] See id.
[16] See Marion Nickum & Pascale Desrumaux, Burnout Among Lawyers: Effects of Workload, Latitude and Mediation via Engagement and Over-Engagement, 30 Psychiatry, Psychol. & L. 349 (2022), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10281412/.
[17] See Interview with Janice Craft (Feb. 2026) (on file with author).
[18] See id.
[19] See Association of Corporate Counsel, Mental Health and Burnout in the Legal Profession: Wellness Competence MCLE 8 (Sept. 16, 2025) (on file with Association of Corporate Counsel), https://www.acc.com/sites/default/files/2025-10/ACC_CLE_092025.pdf.
[20] See id.
[21] See id.
[22] See Denise Albieri Jodas Salvagioni et al., Physical, Psychological and Occupational Consequences of Job Burnout: A Systematic Review of Prospective Studies, PLOS One (2017), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5627926/.
[23] See id.
[24] See id.
[25] See id.
[26] See generally id.
[27] See id.; Ashley Abramson, Burnout and Stress Are Everywhere, Monitor on Psychology, Am. Psych. Ass’n (Jan. 1, 2022), https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress.
[28] See Patrick R. Krill et al., The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys, 10 J. Addict. Med. 46 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4736291/.
[29] See Joel L. Young, M.D., Untreated Mental Illness, Psych. Today (Dec. 30, 2015), https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-your-adult-child-breaks-your-heart/201512/untreated-mental-illness.
[30] See id.
[31] See id.
[32] See id.
[33] See Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[34] See generally Patrick R. Krill et al., The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys, 10 J. Addict. Med. 46 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4736291/.
[35] Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.1 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[36] See id. cmt.
[37] See id. cmt.
[38] See generally Panagiota Koutsimani et al., Burnout and Cognitive Performance, 18 Int’l J. Env’t Rsch. & Pub. Health 2145 (2021), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7926785/.
[39] See Patrick R. Krill et al., The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys, 10 J. Addict. Med. 46 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4736291/.
[40] Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.3 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[41] See Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter, Understanding the Burnout Experience: Recent Research and Its Implications for Psychiatry, 15 World Psych. 103 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911781/.
[42] See generally Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.3 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[43] Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.4 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[44] See Protect Yourself from Common Disciplinary Complaints, Am. Bar Ass’n (Mar. 7, 2022), https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2022/0307/protect-yourself-from-complaints/.
[45] See Model Rules of Pro. Conduct r. 1.4 (Am. Bar Ass’n 2024).
[46] See Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter, Understanding the Burnout Experience: Recent Research and Its Implications for Psychiatry, 15 World Psych. 103 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911781/.