The Number One Thing That Legal Education is Missing

Legal education is missing a focus on personal development.

Personal development is the differentiator that will teach you how to stay in a positive headspace and make room to support clients at the most effective levels.

Personal development allows you to support your clients when they are going through the most difficult time in their lives. (In my practice, that difficult time is an employer having to terminate an employee, or an employee facing a separation themselves).

But the path to personal development is…personal.

Here are some of the topics you can focus on in your personal development path, right from the Law Practice Queen blueprint:

Imposter syndrome: identifying it and working to overcome it.

Anxiety: recognizing how it manifests in the body and how you can seek resources to treat and manage it.

Depression: understanding the different symptoms (it’s not just lying in bed and not showering and affects many high performing professionals - for me it manifested as irritability) and how to seek help.

Coaching, Psychiatry and Therapy: the importance of leaning on professionals who can help you reframe and have perspective around life events, and support you if you have anxiety, depression, or any other mental health issue.

Substance Abuse: Law schools, and the legal profession, encourage alcohol consumption at school and corporate events. Education around how alcohol impacts the human body (particularly sleep which is critical to maintaining mental and physical health) is lacking. Many law students and lawyers use alcohol and other substances to self-medicate for stress, but alcohol use increases anxiety and depression in the long term and is not a sustainable solution for stress management.

Balance: the traditional legal model at BigLaw, which most law schools push students toward, encourages placing billable hours as the highest priority above sleep, proper nutrition, outside interests, and family. Teaching law students how to map out their lives and maintain appropriate boundaries to accomplish their life plan is critical to avoid burnout and harm.

Because this personal development piece is missing from the legal education process, I’ve taken it upon myself to impart the lessons I’ve learned to the broader legal community by writing and coaching lawyers through Law Practice Queen.

If you struggle with prioritizing your self care, setting boundaries, and want tools to get you from burned out to peaceful and fulfilled, join my Law Practice Queen newsletter, where I'll be focusing on this topic and developing a new offering for you.