Finding Community in the Post-Pandemic Legal World
For those in the legal profession, the need to build community has never been stronger. According to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, lawyering still counts as one of the “loneliest professions,” and a growing body of research has raised alarms about the mental health of overworked attorneys: one 2023 study found that lawyers facing high stress, overwork and loneliness were more than twice as likely to contemplate suicide as other working adults. The crisis is not confined to attorneys putting in long hours at the largest firms, however, but affects lawyers across the profession including in solo practice, suggesting that isolation and lack of community are significant contributing factors in addition to workload.
