Doing more work with fewer resources, often isolated by remote work, frequently feeling undervalued or ignored – the sources of professional stress and burnout are varied for in-house lawyers, many of whom leave for a new role as a result of their dissatisfaction.
This places further responsibility on managers to monitor for signs of burnout and to step in forcefully to help, according to a panel of in-house legal executives.
“Burnout is a crisis in the legal industry, both in the U.S. and abroad,” said Amanda Rubio, an attorney and director of Axiom’s enterprise technology practice. Rubio moderated a Jan. 16 panel discussion with three in-house counsel on practical strategies to avoid and identify stress and burnout.
About 97% of in-house attorneys experience stress and burnout, with 39% classifying this as severe, according to Axiom’s July 2024 survey of 300 in-house counsel. Beyond the human toll of this type of stress, general counsel and their teams must contend with attrition and employee turnover if they don’t address the issues, the panel noted.
Since the global pandemic in 2020, one of the largest work stressors has been the expansion of working remotely and professionals learning how to navigate “a sense of where you draw the line in terms of your time and your availability for work,” said Richard Buckley, chief legal and risk officer at Modulr, a London-based electronic payments company.
“Sometimes you choose to accept a call at 7:30 when that’s your exercise time. Should you really take that call?” said Nicole Olsman, chief legal officer and head of sustainability for Linxon, a global construction and energy company.
Lawyers also tend to be conscientious about their work and feel a sense of duty about helping their companies and colleagues, which can lead to mounting workloads. “You get to the end of the day or the end of your week and there is always more to do,” he said.
Many lawyers also bring to their work “a sense of wanting to maintain ownership over things handed to us” because of the need to see a task or project completed properly, Olsman said. As a result, many attorneys are not adept at delegating tasks as well as they should, she said.
Having workplace flexibility within one’s work days and weeks is also a critical component of battling lawyers’ stress, the panel noted. Most people know what needs to be done and their deadlines. Managers should also note that there are cycles to most businesses, periods where the company will call upon legal for heavy bouts of work and other times when it’s less busy.
Identifying and working within these cycles is crucial for legal managers to identify and communicate, said Femi Giwa, the chief legal officer at Salsify, a software-as-a-service company for digital merchants.
“Make sure that the team knows there are times when you need to do a ramp up, and focus on work cycles, but at other times make sure they know it’s time to take a breather,” he said. “When there’s no breather, and it’s time for a ramp up, that’s when you see burnout.”
In-house lawyers are “the doers behind the scenes,” and often feel overlooked when the company closes a large deal or has a major business success, Olsman said. More often, “the spotlight comes onto the legal team when something doesn’t go well,” she noted.
Because of this, legal leaders should offer recognition and appreciation “when it’s deserved and to make sure the leadership is aware” of the attorney or team that worked on a particular project, Olsman said.
Managers who oversee remote employees must also take extra care during weekly check-in meetings to spot early indications and red flags of burnout by asking more questions and leaving space for a conversation. The routine workplace question around the world – “How are you?” – won’t suffice, Buckley said.
“Asking that question a second time is really important,” he said. “People go superficially, ‘I'm fine, thanks.’ You have to probe a bit deeper and further” to help the attorney begin communicating about their stress and areas where they need help.
Also, it might be wise to insist that the video camera be turned on for these calls. “It’s a small thing,” Buckley said, but “you see a lot from that person’s face” in terms of stress and frustration.
