Bench & Bar January/February 2026

ABOUT THE AUTHOR DR. ERIC Y. DROGIN is a Norton Healthcare Louisville Hospitals Medical Staff member with clinical privileges in adult psychology. A clinical faculty member of the University of Louis ville School of Medicine, he also teaches on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School, where he serves as the Affiliated Lead of Psycholegal Studies for the Psychiatry, Law, and Society Program at Brigham and Women’s Hos pital and participates in the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at the Massa chusetts Mental Health Center and the Forensic Psychiatry Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Proud to be a Kentucky lawyer for the last 35 years, Dr. Drogin is a former chair of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section and a former president of the American Board of Forensic Psychology. Please contact him at eyd@drogin.net with your suggestions for lawyer mental health and wellness topics.

it’s not every day that one catches lightning in a literary bottle, so writers cherish the opportunity whenever it comes along. As it turns out, being able to call the shots does not in any way reduce the mental health and wellness needs of judges. According to no less an authority than the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; https://tinyurl.com/well-judge), “if judges are expected to deliver high-qual ity decisions, they must be supported in maintaining their well-being—because a healthy, resilient judiciary is essential to upholding integrity and public trust,” while “judges are faced with excessive workloads, tight schedules and often also with various systematic challenges, outside pressures and unfounded criticism.” According to an accompanying UNODC survey report (https://tinyurl.com/UNO DC-judge-well), several judge participants ascribed particular value to such “concrete activities and measures” as “sessions on emotional intelligence and well-being,” “motivational conferences,” “team build ing events,” “social clubs, “gym subsidies and facilities,” “exercise classes,” “regular health checks,” “counselling sessions with psychologists or psychiatrists,” and “infor mation bulletins on various health-related issues.” Similar to what colleagues in other professions have observed, “several survey participants noted that unless the training was truly effective, they would prefer not to undergo any training as it actually only meant more work.” In addi tion, respondents “explained that although they answered ‘yes’ for certain categories of available support, such as psychological counselling or guidance materials, they were only vaguely aware that there was some support available” but “clarified, how ever, that they were not sure how to access the existing resources.” For the rest of us, it’s easy to see how non-judicial judging comports with considerations that reflect the guidance proffered by the “National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being” (the “Task Force”), an

entity “conceptualized and initiated by the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP), the National Organi zation of Bar Counsel (NOBC), and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL)” and made up of several other “participating entities” from within and without the American Bar Association (https://tinyurl.com/ntflwb). The Task Force has identified six pillars or “dimensions” that combine to “make up full well-being for lawyers,” one of which is the “Occupational” dimension, expressed in part by “cultivating personal satisfaction, growth, and enrichment in work,” with a particular emphasis on “financial stability.” (https://tinyurl.com/ntflwb-report). Judge not lest ye be judged, but it is often better to have judged and lost business than never to have judged at all.

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