25 Reasons Why Lawyers Hate to Practice Law and Go Crazy
March 18, 2016 § 4 Comments
An interesting article at lawcrossing.com catalogs 25 reasons why the practice of law can be corrosive and eat away at your well-being. You can find it at this link.
Some of the reasons include: being accountable for so many small details; having to work constantly and compete with peers; exhaustion from the constant conflict; the stress; the very high cost for making mistakes in mundane matters; the pay is not enough; student loans.
If you don’t seek out and find oases of peace and contentment the practice of law will eat you alive.
An article in the Washington Post relates that the rate of lawyers who have “hazardous, harmful alcohol-dependent drinking” problems is 20.6%, while the rate for all Americans is only 6.8%.
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 
Lawyers need to understand that they do not make the facts of their lawsuit. Their clients do. Do the best you can for your client and let it go..
Maybe add: lawyers often work with uncertainties and ambiguities. It’s hard to be sure of things. The ground is always shifting, and the judges are always unpredictable. A lawyer doesn’t have a tangible work product that performs a definite function; you can’t sit back at the end of the day and appreciate your work. It’s always an uncertain fight to shift the odds. I think that wears on you.
Good point, particularly if you are risk adverse or care about clients and outcomes.
While our clients our often grateful, however, seeing their attorney can be an unwelcome reminder to a client of their worst problem. (Sometimes we get an “Oh, hey….”)
We also often know too much about folks in small towns as well, and have to change the subject when asked about “so and so” or when asked “what happened to thus and such . . ..”
Perhaps that is why we tend to recount our war stories.