Reframing the Wellness Challenges in the Legal Profession as Opportunities for Christian Lawyers to Be Salt and Light

Abstract

In August 2017, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being published its seminal report titled The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. Although other sources had for years expressed concern over the state of well-being of those in the legal profession, the alarming findings in the report and comprehensiveness of its recommendations intensified the calls that more needs to be done to address the problems with mental health, substance abuse, addiction, and related challenges faced by far too many judges, lawyers, and law students. State bars, local bar associations, law schools, and other key stakeholders have since responded to these calls by enacting ethics rule changes, conducting CLEs, drafting new reports, and taking other actions designed to improve the state of well-being in the profession. Then, early this year, the COVID-19 pandemic swept throughout the globe and created new challenges, some of which are still unknown at the time of this writing, but some of which have already harmed the struggling state of lawyers’ and law students’ wellness.

How can Christian judges, lawyers, and law students be “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-15) in the midst of these wellness challenges? This Article first will discuss these challenges and then will offer approaches Christians in the legal profession might take to address them and ultimately work to improve the profession.

Keywords: wellness, lawyer well-being, legal profession, mental health, judges, lawyers, law students, christian

JEL Classification: I1, I10, I100, I19, I23, K1, K10, K40, K49