Wellness has been a hot topic in the legal profession over the last two years. Last summer, several legal organizations came together to form a National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. The task force compiled a report with its top five recommendations for legal organizations, bar associations, and the lawyers themselves to adopt.
As a result, states, bar associations and other legal organization across the country pushed for changes. Illinois, for example, instituted a new mental health and substance abuse CLE requirement for its attorneys and, most recently, formulated a statewide task force on lawyer well-being.
Even the law schools are taking action.
Earlier this month, the American Bar Association’s Law Student Division announced its plans to make March 28, 2018 the official National Mental Health Day for law schools.
In light of this upcoming mental health awareness day, the ABA Law Student Division is joining forces with the American Bar Association’s Commission on Lawyers’ Assistance Programs (CoLAP) to host a twitter chat discussing wellness in our law schools.
Research shows that the stress and substance abuse issues often begin in the law school setting. Therefore, the goal of this social media conversation is to encourage students to seek help when they need it, by addressing questions around stigma, bar application character and fitness, and anything else on the minds of students and those who care about them.
This upcoming twitter chat will be held in conjunction with Law School Mental Health Day – March 28, 2018 – from 1-2pm EST.
Mistie Bauscher, Former Conditional Admittee (@bauschlawyer), Brian Cuban, author of The Addicted Lawyer (@bcuban), and Amanda Lee, Harvard Law School – Student Government President (@HLS_StudentGov) will facilitate the Twitter Chat.
To participate in the conversation, law students, professor, and other legal professionals are encouraged to follow and contribute to the #LawSchoolWellness hashtag. Those interested in the twitter chat can learn more information by following both the ABA Law Student Division (@abalsd) and CoLAP (@ABAcoLAP) on Twitter, as well.
