BOPR - [Board Notes - Winter 2005]

By David N. Shearon, JD, MAPP
Executive Director
Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization

Were you this happy when you were practicing law?” The attorney who asked this question was sitting on the back row at one of the Lawyering and the Good Life seminars we have conducted recently. He didn’t look happy. In fact, he frowned through much of the seminar and left before it was over. Obviously he had doubts that it was possible to practice law and be happy at the same time. Others may share those doubts, and still quote1 others may question the importance of the topic. We think the question of whether more lawyers can be happier practicing law is an important one — it has great impact on the possibility of greater lawyer professionalism.

At one level, most of us do not give much credence to the importance of happiness. It is viewed as not serious, trivial, ephemeral, and generally just too darn “fluffy” for sophisticated, intelligent folks. Think this overstates the case? Then consider this: a recent Google search for the phrase “fat, dumb, and ____________” came up with 220,000 hits. A search for “fat, dumb, and happy” returned 212,000 hits. So, 97% of the time we fill in the blank for “fat, dumb, and ________”, we fill it in with “happy.” Not a rousing endorsement of happiness, is it?

Could it be that this result stems from a world-wide tendency toward clichés? Here are quotes from some writers who can hardly be attacked as cliché-ridden hacks:

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” Earnest Hemmingway
“One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.” William Feather, author & publisher 1896-1981
“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.” Gustave Flaubert

Not only do we equate “happy” with “airhead,” but we also equate negativity with intelligence. A Harvard Business School researcher recently found that subjects who read book reviews that were critical of the book reviewed tended to rate the authors of those reviews as more intelligent and more expert than did subjects who read reviews that were positive, even though the positive reviews were rated by independent judges as having higher quality and greater forcefulness.

What is happiness? Researchers generally treat happiness as a global concept encompassing multiple aspects of life. For example, the “Authentic Happiness Index” available at www.authentichappiness.org measures happiness as comprised of pleasure, engagement, and meaning. In this article, we will use “happiness” to include the frequency and strength of positive emotions, the habitual employment of positive thought patterns, and the experience of positive relationships.

But what do we know about how happiness really works? What role does it play in our lives? Fortunately, research over the past decade or so has given us better insight into role of happiness. Positive emotions tend to broaden our thought/action repertoire and to build social and psychological capital for use in the future. In other words, fear causes us to run, anger causes us to fight, and sadness causes us to withdraw. Happiness, joy, love, and the other positive emotions cause us to become more creative, think more globally, and establish stronger connections with those around us. Both negative and positive emotions are important to survival and exist because they helped our ancestors meet and overcome challenges. Positive thought patterns such as positive explanatory styles (sometimes called “optimism”), hopefulness, and growth-oriented mindsets help us bounce back quickly from adversity and employ all our skills and energies in the pursuit of our goals.

Happiness also leads to success. Individuals who experience more and stronger positive emotions, engagement, and meaning in their lives also

are healthier,
live longer,
have more satisfying relationships,
are more successful in their careers, and
are less likely to judge others based on stereotypes.

quote2 The evidence suggests that happiness leads to success more so than success leads to happiness. Success is fleeting, but happiness builds enduring well-being and accomplishment.

Lawyers are not at the center of the positive emotion universe. As a profession, we are two to four times more depressed than the general population, more prone to suicide, highly prone to alcoholism, more anxious, and more hostile. However, these characteristics are not inherent in individuals who choose the professional of law. Students entering law school look just like other college graduates in their levels of depression and other characteristics. But, by the end of the first year of law school, 30% are clinically depressed. By the end of law school this has risen to 40%. The tendency to consume alcohol to cope with stress increases. “Law school taught me to drink” is one way this has been expressed. Finally, law students tend to switch from intrinsic to extrinsic motivations for their legal careers. In other words, they tend to go from wanting to do good and enjoy their profession to wanting to get the goods such as high starting salaries and plush offices.

Law professor Susan Daicoff has identified what she calls a “tripartite crisis”:

Depressed, unhappy, hostile, angry, and dependent lawyers
Declining professionalism
Low public opinion

In the continuing legal education world, program sponsors usually address ethics and professionalism from one of three perspectives: “don't”, “ought”, and “is it?” “Don't” courses focus on the ethical rules with the admonition as in “don't do…” this, that, or the other.

“Ought” courses are more frequent in states that have separate professionalism requirements. These courses tend to be of the preachy “here's how you ought to behave” variety. Be nice. Be considerate. Be prepared.

“Is it?” courses generally offer a scenario and raise the questions of whether an ethics violation occurred and, if so, how the attorney could have avoided the problem. While popular because they are at least interesting, the usefulness of these courses in changing behavior can be questioned because so few ethical complaints are based on a failure of the attorney to recognize an ethical problem. Research conducted by the Commission suggests that lawyers generally find ethics/professionalism courses less useful than general CLE courses.

Fortunately, there is a third approach to professionalism and the practice of law that can address all three aspects of the tripartite crisis. This approach has solid scientific support. Moreover, it can help not only lawyers, but also those around them experience more positive emotions and the broadening and building consequences of those emotions.

If we want to change the professionalism routinely displayed by practicing attorneys, we should focus on helping lawyers become happier. Some may quibble about the suggestion that we should first help lawyers become happier. There is a strong strain of folk wisdom that suggests that even though “the pursuit of happiness“ may have been included in the Declaration of Independence, it is a mistake to engage in such pursuit. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” Nathaniel Hawthorne expressed the same perspective: “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

quote3 The common wisdom, however, is wrong. There is solid scientific evidence that we can increase the amount of happiness that we experience in our lives. Large scale, randomized, and placebo-controlled experiments have shown that very simple exercises can significantly increase happiness. These exercises work for individuals who are experiencing average or better happiness currently, as well as for those who are below average. They even work with individuals who are clinically depressed and have the added benefit of significantly relieving depression.

There is also good evidence that the increased experience of happiness increases professional success, the quality of personal relationships, and the likelihood of highly professional behavior based on personal values. So, despite the risk that some may be put off by the encouragement that we pursue happiness, we nevertheless suggest that both the encouragement of the pursuit of happiness and support for the pursuit are necessary steps toward increased professionalism and a successful resolution of the tripartite crisis.

The Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program has received requests from attorneys for programs aimed at overall attorney well-being. If you have an interest in such programs, please go to http://tinyurl.com/tdxzo and answer the four questions there to help us plan the best approach.

Ted Rice Joins Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program
In an effort to expand TLAP’s ability to service the large number of referrals that pertain to mental health, stress, depression and life balance issues, Ted Rice, M.Ed., LPC-MHSP, CEAP, was recently hired as Assistant Director. Ted graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Master of Education in Human Development Counseling and is a Nationally Board Certified Counselor, Mental Health Service Provider, and Certified Employee Assistance Professional. Ted is a trained crisis-intervention specialist (CISM) and has worked in the substance abuse treatment and mental health field for over 11 years. Before coming to TLAP he served as Clinical Counselor for Work/Life Connections EAP at Vanderbilt University.