The advisory board for Law.com's Minds Over Matters reporting project brings a singular perspective on mental health and well-being in the legal industry. From learning from personal experiences to research-driven analysis of the issues, the board's members are all dedicated to solving issues that impact the legal industry at rates higher than most other professions. Below, you will meet our esteemed board members, who will help guide us through this project, and hear in their own words what is motivating them to effect change.

Miriam Beezy

My beloved 31-year-old son Benjamin killed himself last June. Our family and all of his many friends and colleagues were shocked. I am still in shock. My son was a lawyer practicing in civil litigation. Ben was a star in everything he did, but he couldn't see it or feel it due to his depression. He was scholarly, athletic, kind, friendly with a ready smile, handsome, wholesome and a hard worker, working on cases up until the end.

Miriam Beezy

Ben's clinical depression and the stigma our society and profession has created around this disease made him highly resistant to getting the help he needed. Ben was not isolated. He traveled. He had a wide network of friends. He had a loving family. He was embedded in a community, but he hid his depression, suicidal thoughts and plans from everyone even when asked directly. So strong was his shame and embarrassment, his vulnerability, he denied and deflected every question. Ben felt the sting of stigma. He never wanted to speak about what was truly inside of him. He wanted to be strong and brave.

My husband and I only discovered Ben's terrible dilemma in his private journal on his computer after he died:

"Sometimes, I feel like reaching out to others and telling them everything, but then I will just feel ashamed or risk people's confidence in me. Perhaps I would have some immediate relief, but I would jeopardize my ability to get jobs and people would know these vulnerabilities about me and I would feel weak forever. I see myself reaching toward so many faces and arms, but I sink farther and farther down. It is a total descent into the deep. Help me."

This potentially lethal vulnerability, combined with a society and profession that have yet to fully destigmatize depression, mental illness and treatment, led Ben deeper and deeper into the abyss, undetected, while working diligently. A perfect storm with a tragic ending. We must stop this.

I have been practicing law for over 30 years and now dedicate my efforts to opening the eyes of the legal community to the effects of the stigma that permeate mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, hidden suicidality, illness. In joining the ALM Mental Health Advisory Board, I want to destigmatize and normalize the discussion surrounding mental vulnerability and health and the need to respect and encourage treatment while working. I do this in honor of my son Ben, his legacy and our future.

John Hollway

John Hollway

Since starting the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2013, I've worked with criminal justice professionals, including prosecutors and defense attorneys, who struggle to cope not just with the often traumatic subject matter in their cases, but the overwhelming caseload and expectations of perfection that exist in the criminal justice system, and counsel them on how to live with and learn from cases where they may have made a mistake that led to a wrongful conviction. In addition, I see our law students struggle with the pressures of that environment—pressures that mirror the unacceptably high rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even suicide that we know are plaguing our industry at even greater rates than the population at large.

In 2018, I received a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from Penn, and since that time I have been designing programs for law students, practicing lawyers and firms that provide actionable steps that each of us can use to thrive and improve our engagement with the law.

I want every law student and lawyer to have the tools to design and manage our lives and flourish in the ways that are important to us. When we do so, we have more energy to take care of the people that are important to us—our clients and our families—and when life throws us curveballs, we can react more productively and bounce back faster.

I am excited to work with ALM to bring scientifically validated tools, which have been shown to have positive psychological and physical health benefits, to a larger population. I am hopeful we can help lawyers in need of assistance and provide tools that will prevent negative mental and behavioral health outcomes for all of our colleagues.

Joanna Litt

My name is Joanna Litt. I'm 41 years old, I haven't practiced law in quite some time, and I have no professional mental health training. I was asked to be a member of the ALM Mental Health Advisory Board because my husband, Gabriel MacConaill, a junior partner at Sidley Austin, killed himself last October 2018. Shortly after, The American Lawyer published an open letter I wrote about our tragedy.