A man with his head lowered shattering showing mental health issues. Photo: solarseven/Shutterstock.com

 

Anyone who has watched the TV show Suits will likely remember dozens of legal associates trawling through reams of documents, all in the same cramped room, late into the night. As archaic as those scenes now look, we know this often happened during a typical associate's legal career.

Artificial intelligence now frees up time for everyday lawyers, who are no longer chained to their desks and now brimming with capacity to take on strategic responsibility. Whether that means crunching down on cases, winning new business, or coming up with fresh and innovative ideas to benefit the firm, surely lawyers are more able to leave the monotony behind and engage with the higher-end work that really matters to the business.

That's the promise anyway, but is it reality?

Unfortunately, many signs suggest this is not the case, and this is negatively impacting lawyers' mental health.

While legal technology's thousand-mile-an-hour expansion has opened theoretical opportunities for lawyers flex their creativity, the cultural change is still missing. Lawyers used to feel pressure to stay late into the night with their paperwork. Now, while that pressure is much less common, they are instead expected to stay tuned-in 24/7 to clients' demands.

Put simply, because they can be logged on anywhere, they must always be logged on.

Obviously, this can be taxing. First and foremost, lawyers are advisers and sounding boards for their clients' concerns. Paramount to any lawyer's success is devising and delivering a measured, strategic response in high-pressure situations. Piling the best and brightest associates under the demand to subscribe to an "always switched-on" culture runs the risk of encouraging them to rush, and burn out.

Not being allowed time to react with skill instead of speed, these lawyers will be increasingly unable to stand out at their firms. Their careers may stall, and they may develop stress and mental health issues.

The stakes are high. And the more we let technology run away from us without managing cultural change, the more we alienate new associates and discourage them from growing into their roles.

So what is the solution? Increased and widespread education can go a long way. While as an industry we are getting a better grip on the issue, long-established business practices—like employee training—often have not changed in-step with technology. Law firms are leaving associates ill-equipped to handle a world that never turns off. That means associates are often anxious and overwhelmed by the task of getting up to speed in their legal career.

Central to all of this is the need for companies to understand what "digital training" means before they offer it. It does not mean teaching your employees how to use a new tool, nor is it about adding technology into a centuries-old skill set, such as drafting contracts. Instead, it means teaching lawyers that the world is moving too quickly for old-style client deliverables to keep up.

Proper training teaches lawyers how to feel comfortable and competent in the new world. The more confident they feel, the less stressed they will be and the more likely it is that they will fulfill their potential.

Regardless of how tech-savvy you might think your new associates are, they still need this training and onboarding—an introduction to exactly how technology is disrupting the world of law. Without it, you risk withholding from them of the tools they need to become an effective and efficient legal practitioner.

Dan Reed is the CEO of UnitedLex, which leads large-scale business transformation projects for global companies. Prior to this, Dan worked as general counsel and CFO to a number of public and private equity-backed companies.