Robin Belleau, director of well-being with Kirkland & Ellis, Serena Miller, director of professional development with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Delia Violante, director of the Women in Business Law Initiative with Berkeley Law, during the Women in Business Law Initiative hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business on Thursday.

Well-being professionals from two Big Law firms had a simple message for young attorneys at a recent panel discussion: they are more than just lawyers.

At the second quarterly roundtable event of the Women in Business Law initiative, hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, professional development and wellness counselors at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Kirkland & Ellis urged young lawyers not to lose their identities outside the law.

The Women in Business Law Initiative, which kicked off in 2016, aims to address gender inequity in business law. During the June 13 panel, Robin Belleau, Kirkland & Ellis's new well-being director, noted the Illinois lawyers' assistance program has been finding aging attorneys refusing to retire because “their whole identity was wrapped up being a lawyer.”

Belleau said noted the importance of non-law relationships, hobbies and interests. Though, she also acknowledged that maintaining those things can be a challenge for young lawyers whose spare time is minimal.

Wilson Sonsini professional development director Serena Miller echoed Belleau's comments: “Please do not lose your identity just because you chose to become a lawyer,” she said.

The panel event was moderated by Delia Violante, program director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. Since founding the program, the school has partnered with law firms to offer career development, mentorship and networking programs for students and professionals.

Citing a 2016 study by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, Belleau pointed out that 28% of licensed, employed attorneys have reported struggling with some level of depression, and 19% demonstrated symptoms of anxiety. The study also found that younger attorneys in the first 10 years of practice exhibit the highest incidence of these problems.

“There's a lot of thoughts and reasons to why that might be,” Belleau said, listing several common stressors: “Coming out of law school with increased debt, trying to find jobs, just the 24/7 work environment—technology allows you to always be present, always be there.”

But she also noted a generational difference.

“The younger generation, I think, is more willing to admit 'I am experiencing stress,' 'I am experiencing anxiety and depression,' and more willing to name it and own it.”

With the numbers of associates who are seeking help largely outpacing the number of the career advisers at a law firm, Miller urged young lawyers to take ownership of their career and make viable connections that will help them.

“You are all still very, very fresh, you are very new and honest, you really don't know Jack,” Miller said. “So, we are here to help you with that, but I need you to take a little bit ownership in of that.”

The Cost of Saying No 

When a law student in the audience asked whether an associate should ever say “no” to his or her superior, and what the potential costs of doing so might be, the two panelists' agreed that communication is key.

“It's going to depend. As most things in the law, there are many shades of gray,” Miller said. She advised the student to do a cost-benefit analysis on the impact on the relationship with the person making the request. If the relationship is important, the price of saying no increases dramatically, she said.

“The ultimate cost is that you erase the amount of trust that you either created or you are attempting to leverage, and that can be one of the worst possible things that can happen to your reputation as a junior associate within a firm,” she added. “So, am I going to just go out on a limb and say you probably need to suck it up and do it? Yep”

Belleau, on the other hand, suggested that communication can help mitigate the cost. She noted as young associates, there are a number of things that are beyond their control, so it's important for them to have a clear understanding of their schedule and communicate their responsibilities with the senior attorneys.

“At least put that out there, giving it a business reason … I think rational people are more likely to accept that,” Belleau said.

Miller added that “communication is single-handedly the thing that gets lost the most in the dynamic between lawyers, which is horribly ironic giving the fact that we are paid very highly by our clients to communicate, clearly, concisely and frequently.”

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