Published By: Sreyanshi

It is the Young Lawyers’ Task to Change their Work Culture

The legal industry is a very difficult industry where the issue of mental health takes an important role. This is because the training of law involves an urgency to be perfect, which, on the other hand may generate pessimism. Specially, for young and inexperienced lawyers, this may create a negative mind set. These young lawyers dedicate their lives to the service of law, do whatever their seniors say and don’t bother about looking after their mental health. Thus, mental health problem is a common problem for the young law practitioners. This problem, on the other hand, affects their professional life and they feel it very hard to further access to the judicial system.

To change the environment, it is not practical to hope that senior lawyers will take any initiative. They are accustomed to the system and been hardened by it. When a lawyer is working in a firm for a long time, the financial prospect and the social standing associated with it, compels them to be plunged into the system and they feel as if they have no other identity. Thus, the onus of the change falls upon the young lawyers.

The first step for a young lawyer to get over his problem is to acknowledge his problem and to seek help from someone else to overcome it. He has to be honest with himself. In a law firm where healthy work culture prevails, a person who is seeking help is dealt with positively and his directness is acknowledged as a positive characteristic, not the other way round.

When a young lawyer is depressed, his brain chemistry changes and if the problem persists, it would lead to burnout. On the other hand, it may be a psychiatric problem which needs to be addressed immediately. They should not be scared and ask for support. In fact, the legal training must incorporate a portion about how to deal with mental health issues. As the issue is general, we must not expect that it is the duty of each individual lawyer to deal with their mental issues themselves.

In order to change the system, the law firm must make some healthy habits like do not expect lawyers to be available 24x7 and do not answer any telephone call before 9a.m. They should create a healthy atmosphere where the young people feel safe to work and encouraged.