Virtual Isolation: Is Hyperconnectivity Helping or Harming the Legal Professional?

If we stop to think about what we look at most during the day, the answer would probably not be our family or friends, nor our clients or colleagues. The most feasible option would be our mobile phone. Smartphones are now our companions for work, social, leisure and even family life. However, excessive use can lead to problems of dependence, addiction and fear. We find ourselves simultaneously connected and alone. Lawyers today are "never turned off." Like our mobile phones, we only go on standby at the end of the day as we crawl into bed, exhausted. 

Gradual, incremental increases in responsibilities, duties, pressures, and demands upon lawyers, at home and at work, combined with long work-days and weeks has placed our profession at risk. At some point work may dominate our lives and keep us at a chronically high level of distress; yet we are often unaware that we have lost balance in our lives. It doesn't appear that the "always-on" culture will be switching off any time soon. Brian Quinn of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Pennsylvania will explore key strategies that can help attorneys safeguard their lives and potentially curtail the need for substance use or mental health services.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the early warning signs of impairment in attorneys, with special emphasis on stress, anxiety and trauma, including the mental health impact of technology in the post- COVID-19 world

2. Review the free services that Lawyers Assistance Programs provide to lawyers, judges, their family members and law students

3. Examine the barriers that exist which prevent lawyers and judges from seeking the help they need and the role that education plays in breaking the stigma and fear associated with addiction and mental illness in the legal profession.

4. Discuss the ethical challenges created by the imposed isolation of the pandemic, including the role technology plays, and its possible long-lasting effect on the legal profession

5. Explore well-being strategies that can be used by legal professionals