Working within the legal field is known to be like a pressure cooker. Tight deadlines, long hours, and high stakes for clients are just a few stressors everyday attorneys oftentimes face. These stressors, among a number of other factors, contribute to the abnormal levels of anxiety, the higher likelihood of depression and substance misuse, and the increasing number of burnouts for attorneys.¹ While many feel this is par for the course when considering a career in law, with law students recognizing the high stress of law school and, eventually, within their chosen career, many don’t fully understand that the rates of anxiety, depression, and stress for law students still far exceed those of their peers in other high-stress graduate programs.² In fact, while most enter law school with mental health statistics similar to medical students, research demonstrates that mental health difficulties take their toll by year 3, with students describing rates of depression and stress that are nearly 30% higher than those in medical school.³ The trajectory to burnout continued as these law students began their careers, merging into employer-required billable hours, client demands, and hard and fast deadlines imposed by the courts, rules, law, and employers.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the workforce, including attorneys, began to reconsider what they wanted out of their work situations. They began to pursue opportunities that allowed them to achieve the ultimate dream — the ever-evasive work-life balance. While they began to pursue options that would lead to greater overall well-being both personally and professionally, it was difficult for attorneys to determine how they were going to ultimately achieve a greater integration between work and home that so many before them had failed to find.

The difficulties in achieving improved alignment with work and home responsibilities, paired with the recognition of the vital need to ensure all responsibilities are taken care of, lead one to wonder, is there a potential change on the horizon? As AI begins to converge with the work of attorneys, might it help one find greater peace and balance? And though most of us are resistant to, and perhaps even terrified of, change, we have to acknowledge that AI has already begun to transform the way attorneys practice law. Could AI have positive impacts on well-being?

Artificial intelligence has already begun automating and bringing efficiencies to routine tasks, such as document review, legal research, and contract analysis, allowing attorneys to focus on more complex work. By using AI, attorneys are able to save hours of work per week while continuing to generate billable time. This remarkably then goes to the question working attorneys continuously ask themselves: Do I have to miss my child’s recital? Can I care for my elderly parents? Can I go to the gym or engage in some form of self-care during waking hours? Many people in many professions ask themselves these questions routinely. For lawyers, it’s a constant struggle every day to meet the needs of their clients, their families, and ultimately themselves. And eventually, when it comes down to it, the needs of clients, work, and families often take a front seat, and self-care gets thrown in the trunk.

During the COVID pandemic, parents and caregivers were initially overwhelmingly stressed and working far beyond their capacity. They were trying to do it all while waiting for the pandemic to end, living in a bubble with limited support due to social distancing and not having a break from either life — whether it be professional or personal. In the short term, managing such high levels of stress may have been doable, but, over an extended period of time, lawyers, like many others, found themselves at a breaking point. There was no break, and something had to give. Constant release of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol were helpful in arming the body against a perceived threat, but without the body’s ability to return these hormones to typical levels, the fight or flight reaction remained, and the body suffered.⁴ This long-term activation of the stress response can disrupt nearly all of the body’s processes and lead to anxiety, depression, digestive troubles, headaches, heart disease, and other heart-related difficulties, sleep trouble, and problems with memory and focus, among a number of other difficulties.⁵ Like many others, attorneys felt burnt out and, not surprisingly, began reporting poor mental health. But then something happened to some attorneys … a shift occurred. Lawyers began to recognize that the pandemic gave a taste of what an improved work-life balance could look like. Some attorneys realized they could turn off the computer or not take a meeting and instead play a game of cards with their family, watch a movie, or take a break and practice yoga. They realized they didn’t have to be on all of the time in both work and family. This is not a feeling that is easily forgotten. We see it today in more candidates demanding hybrid or remote work schedules and refusing to go back into the office on a full-time basis. Some attorneys came to the conclusion that they did not have to be at a high stress level at all times and that it was ok to have moments of calm and peace and to engage in self-care.

This feeling has continued to grow amongst attorneys as AI has entered into the legal field. Attorneys are starting to understand that, as they attempt to achieve the work-life balance their predecessors were unable to obtain, AI may be of great assistance in reducing the need to spend hours upon hours reviewing discovery, reading transcripts, and going down the rabbit hole of legal research. They found AI could boost productivity through AI-powered tools, saving hours of work, and thus time, per week. This potential could transform the way legal professionals deliver value and service to clients and help attorneys get home in time for dinner and not missthe important events in their lives.

While AI is scary for some, others have embraced it. But we cannot ignore the gap between the generations of attorneys. Currently, one may notice three different types of attorneys:

• Attorneys who remember what it was like to spend hours in the office, sometimes not making it home for dinner, and who continued that work through the pandemic and today.
• Young or new attorneys who are in practice within five to ten years of law school and are presently seeking (and perhaps even demanding) a job that leads to greater harmony between work and home life. These attorneys were new or still in law school during the pandemic.
• Attorneys who are in the middle of their careers and remember the long hours before the pandemic but also got a glimpse of improved work-life balance during the pandemic. They seek to achieve this now but are unsure how to do so, as it goes against their initial training and simply feels uncomfortable.

While the aforementioned three (3) generations of attorneys are attempting to figure out what’s next, there also are employers such as law firms, legal aid clinics, corporations, and other legal organizations that employ in-house attorneys tasked with this same challenge. While the attorney may be ready for a role that promotes a greater harmony between work life and personal life and embraces the use of AI to achieve this goal, are the employers ready for this as well? For example, some employers are embracing hybrid and remote work options, while others are not. Some are recognizing the benefit of four-day work weeks when using AI and the potential of increased productivity versus employers who are not ready for anything less than five days a week using tried-and-true manual processes. Will these employers be able to recognize the value of AI, recognizing this could result in attorneys not having to be chained to their desks for hours on end? Are employers willing to encourage the use of AI, particularly with regard to how it could potentially support and even enhance self-care? Are employers willing to look at AI through the lens of competition? After all, AI is allowing, for the first time ever, solo and small firms to compete with medium- and large-sized firms. Those who do not embrace and use AI may be left behind in efficiency, productivity, and potentially staff because, whether we like it or not, AI is not leaving the legal field space. It is here to stay. And attorneys demanding or wishing for that work-life balance may not be keen on staying at a job that would require long work hours instead of trying something new to ensure employee retention.

So where does this leave us all, employees and employers alike? Whether using AI routinely, terrified of its use, or landing somewhere in between, remaining open-minded to how AI can support well-being and accepting that it’s here to stay is crucial. Employing AI tools in practice is not the only use of AI that would be helpful for lawyers in their everyday lives. AI stress management tools, such as apps that offer personalized well-being services to monitor heart rate, breathing, and other mindfulness-based exercises, are readily available. AI tools can even offer prompts to take breaks or engage in longer and more effective periods of recovery, and they can even analyze work habits to promote greater efficiency. In a culture that is constantly changing, the ways in which we view and respond to that change can be critical. The lens through which we see the world is powerful, and we have the power to change that lens. Whether that lens be how we view AI or how we view an entirely different situation, a positive mindset, a willingness to embrace change, and the enthusiasm to improve circumstances to thrive both personally and professionally can all lead to greater overall well-being.

And, as always, the State Bar of Michigan is ready and able to assist lawyers when these tasks feel daunting or guidance is needed as to where to begin:

• The Lawyers and Judges Assistance Program is here to support Michigan’s legal professionals to optimize their general wellness and may be contacted at (800) 996-5522.
• The Practice Management Resource Center is available for attorneys attempting to determine what tools, including AI, may best fit their needs and may be contacted at (800) 341-9715 or pmrchelpline@michbar.org.