The New York Times published in article in January 2008 titled "The Falling-Down Professions." Lawyers were one of the professions discussed and the article was apparently written in response to empirical data proving that a shocking percentage of lawyers do not make it too long in the practice of law. The article points out that law firms will, on average, lose about 1/5 of their associates in any given year and 20% of the total number of attorneys in the country, at some point, suffer from depression. So what are law firms to do to prevent this?

The article mentions a Chicago firm that has formed a "happiness comittee" in an attempt to brighten the long days of its attorneys. Other firms are offering huge incentives in order to try to keep things exciting for their attorneys. Arnie Herz, creator of Legal Sanity, believes that firms need to bring more creativity to the practice of law.

What do you think? Are attorneys that practice in certain areas of the law the ones that get burnt out the quickest and/or suffer from various forms of depression? Is it the demanding hours that the law often requires? As a law student soon to embark upon this prominent profession, should I be concerned?

Comments?

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