Do you know what burnout is? If not, it may be time to study up, because the associates at your firm, happy as they may be, are increasingly aware of it.

Young lawyers appreciate law firms' efforts to improve work-life balance, according to The American Lawyer's 2019 Midlevel Associates Survey. Training and mentorship also appear to be working well for firms that have made efforts to improve in those areas. But associates also cautioned their firms in some cases throughout the survey, warning that burnout is a risk and calling on leaders to continue to modernize their business models by moving away from longstanding billable hour policies.

One Atlanta associate responded clearly when asked about the biggest threat to associates' roles in the legal industry: "Escalating billable rates and billable hours requirements to enhance short-term profits at the expense of long-term attorney development, career satisfaction and work-life balance."

Still, on average, associates in their third, fourth and fifth years are more satisfied with their work lives than ever. The average composite satisfaction score for all 96 participating law firms was 4.29 on a 5-point scale, an increase from last year's average of 4.27.

Associate satisfaction grew in nearly every category lawyers were asked to rate. The results bode well for retention, in particular. The greatest improvement in average score was in the "expect to stay two years" category, rising to 4.18, compared with 4.12 last year.

Midlevel associates are also happier on average with regard to the type of work they're doing and the training they are getting. The average score for "interesting work" was 4.51, up from 4.47 last year, and the average for "satisfying work" was 4.39, up from 4.37.

Scores for "training and guidance" and "partner relations" increased by similar margins, to 4.24 and 4.45, respectively.

"It all ties into the overall work environment. It's the small things that make the big differences," Nathan Peart, a managing director in Major, Lindsey & Africa's associate practice group, says. More firms have made a shift toward openness and transparency with their associates, he notes.

Along those lines, the average score for management openness was up slightly, at 4.07. And although the average score of 3.74 in the "communication about partnership" category was lower than any other, it was up slightly from last year.

"Transparency between the firm and associate is important," Peart says. "People are having more honest dialogues, which is helpful overall."

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Burnout and Billables

There was one category in which the average score declined: billable hour policies. The average score was 4.16, down from 4.17 last year. That may seem like a small change, but it was the only decline among the 12 categories the survey reviews each year.

When it comes to the billable hour, Peart says some of the frustration associates feel stems from a dichotomy: attorneys are finding different ways to bill their clients, but that effort isn't being reflected internally.

Instead, he says, many firms are still reflecting "a clock-watching culture [based on] having to get numbers up for the sake of numbers, versus a merit-based system."

Dissatisfaction with billable hour policies may not be driven simply by the desire to work less. Associates want to be recognized differently, Peart says. Instead of being rewarded for the number of hours worked, "there is a desire and craving to be recognized for your efforts as well—and congratulated on them where appropriate."

That's a complex problem to solve, he says.

Some have blamed the billable hour for high levels of stress and depression in the legal industry. But Peart and others say the problem is more complex than that.

While the survey does not provide a numerical measurement of wellness at law firms, related topics were prominent in open-ended survey answers. This year's survey responses included 95 references to burnout—a total that's grown from 57 in 2017.

Work-life balance, which many argue can help prevent burnout, remained a popular topic of conversation, getting 451 mentions. The term "mental health" was mentioned by a small fraction of respondents, but still more frequently this year, popping up 24 times after appearing just four times last year.

Associates who mentioned burnout in their open-ended survey responses say they're not looking to get out of hard work.

One such lawyer, a New York associate who asked not to be identified to avoid repercussions, says it's not just the number of hours, but how those hours are allocated, that affects mental health.

"You could be working fewer hours and be spread much more thinly across 10 different transactions," the associate says. Moving from one matter to another in quick succession takes more mental energy than spending the same amount of time on one or two matters, he says.

And with the billable hour system, "You don't have a measure of headspace, just a measure of output."

Another New York associate who asked not to be identified says it's not that young lawyers are more burnt out than they used to be. There's simply more awareness.

"We have the benefit now of knowing a bit more about how long hours affect people's productivity and their long-term performance," the associate says.

Peart says it's similar to diversity in the legal profession—it has always been an issue, but more people are willing to talk openly about it now, and in some cases address the problem.

"People [are] realizing [that] you're actually more productive when you refresh and take a break," he says.

It's not just the legal industry talking more about burnout.

The World Health Organization announced in May that a detailed description of burnout was added to its 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. (It was included in the 10th Revision too, but the definition was less precise, WHO's announcement explained.)

"Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed," the entry says.

It is a condition specifically related to occupational stress, WHO emphasized, and its symptoms include "feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and reduced professional efficacy."

Law firm leaders are letting those conversations into their policy decisions as well.

Dan Kusnetz, partner and co-head of the associate committee at Schulte Roth & Zabel, says wellness has been a focus at his firm this year, as a result, in part, of the firm's annual listening tour. Schulte Roth had the highest average score on the Midlevel Associate Satisfaction Survey for the second year in a row.

"It's a work in progress," Kusnetz says, noting that a newly formed wellness subcommittee has met several times now. Managing wellness doesn't go directly to billable hours, he says, and it would still be an area of concern if there were no billable hour requirement.

"These jobs are stressful. We are a service business and our clients are demanding," Kusnetz says. "What we're trying to do is be as responsive as we can."

Schulte Roth's specific methods for addressing attorney well-being are still being developed, he says, but they will include in-house programming and providing outside resources.

As for billable hours, the firm's requirement is 2,000, which includes 200 "softer" hours that can be spent on business development or recruiting, for example, Kusnetz says.

While much of the industry has clung to the billable hour as a way to evaluate associate effort, some firms have eschewed it. Litigation firm Susman Godfrey, a first-timer on the midlevels survey, has no billable hour requirement.

"We've never had a policy where we said you have to bill this number of hours per month," managing partner Neal Manne says. "If you're a firm where people are expected to work really hard, but you do a lot of other things that make people feel good about their job, the billable hours don't change the fact that, overall, people are very satisfied."

The firm ranked sixth out of 96, but its billable hour policy—or lack thereof—didn't carry it there. Its highest scores were in the "interesting work," "benefits and compensation" and "management openness" categories.

Associates at Susman Godfrey are paid well—the firm is among the boutiques and midsize law firms that routinely match market leaders on associate salaries. But they also enjoy benefits that Manne says are targeted toward preventing burnout. Namely, the firm implemented unlimited paid vacation in recent years.

"The reason we did it was we were concerned that our associates weren't taking enough vacation," Manne says. "When you finish a trial and you've been working night and day on the trial, that's a good time to take time off and go off the grid."

The firm also implemented unlimited paid parental leave, and Manne says he has made an effort to see that women and men are using that evenly.

"One of the things I've done personally and my firm has been good at is communicating to our male associates that we're not kidding," he says, noting that it is easier at a firm where leadership is familiar with everyone.

"There's a very high level of camaraderie," Manne says. "We enjoy each other and have a lot of fun together outside the workplace. It all leads to a high level of satisfaction."

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Compensation Considerations

Susman Godfrey was among many firms that implemented associate raises in 2018, which brought most first-year salaries at those firms to $190,000 and gave many midlevels a boost as well.

The last time a similar wave of raises hit the industry, in 2016, satisfaction scores in the benefits and compensation category shot up. That wasn't the case this time. Following the 2018 raises, the satisfaction score in that category was essentially flat, at 4.3.

That may be due, in part, to the fact that more firms refrained from matching market leaders this time around, as a recent survey by the National Association for Law Placement found. But Peart says it also reflects a generational shift toward a multifaceted view of compensation, benefits and workplace culture among millennial professionals.

"Work-life balance and other aspects of work are important to them," Peart says. "If you're just focusing on monetary compensation and those type of benefits, I don't expect the score to change that drastically."

Catering to those needs might require a departure from the normal associate experience, or tailoring individual arrangements to retain talent. For instance, one San Francisco midlevel suggested an approach: "We should develop a system that allows associates to reduce their billable hours target (and salary) in exchange for a demonstrably better work-life balance (i.e., the authority to turn down assignments), and encourage associates to participate in this system."

Still, Peart notes, keeping up with market norms remains a weighty consideration in setting salary and bonuses. After all, most people go to work primarily to earn money.

"In an industry where there can be a lot of similarities in terms of culture or work, it's the little things that can make a lot of difference to associates," he says. "I don't think either takes priority. I think both are important."