CBA Record July-August 2025

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

Engaging in “Human Practice” for Career Sustainability By Katherine Hanson

A s young lawyers, we are just beginning to reap the bene fits of an expensive and time-consuming legal education. Yet research suggests that about one in four lawyers leave the practice within a decade of being admitted to the bar, and one in five under age 40 plan to leave the legal profession entirely in the next five years (Walker, Hannah. Over Half of Young Law yers Considering Quitting by 2027 IBA Research Finds , Law.com, February 2022). Causes cited include burnout, stress, lack of personal fulfillment, lack of work-life balance, mental health concerns, salary, and workplace and industry culture (Dunlap, Tom. Why Do Lawyers Quit Practicing? www.dbllawyers.com, June 2023). I recently attended a networking event where an attorney introduced himself as, “The mean guy who takes money from other people.” He later shared that he was estranged from his spouse and children. Consequences of Suppressing Core Emotions That interaction reminded me of a book I read in college: The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling by Arlie

Russell Hochschild. It discusses the occupational hazards of sup pressing our core emotions for the sake of our work. Continu ous suppression of deep emotions to become the “professional” clinically analytical attorney can lead to detachment. This in turn erects walls between our work and our feelings and fosters the development of cynical perspectives, like the belief that we are caricatures or just actors playing a part. Although this separation may help us manage stress at first, it risks severing our ability to empathize with others. It can also bar us from understanding our own emotions and engaging in necessary introspection. It can further destroy relationships in the absence of such self-evalua tion. Finally, suppression can lead to burnout because we’re not tapped into emotional fulfillment and deny ourselves that outlet. To me, the “mean guy who takes money from other people” I met at the networking event, whose relationships suffered, was displaying alarming symptoms of emotional suppression. How many of us have encountered an attorney like this? How many of us find this condition unhealthy? What can we do to prevent this devolution? If these symptoms stem from emotional suppression or

38 July/August 2025