legal sanity

My friend Steven Keeva has written yet another insightful article on navigating the waters of lawyer life. This piece continues a conversation about why lawyers are usually “terrific at fighting and negotiating on behalf of their clients,” but fare poorly “when it comes to taking care of their own needs.” Keeva suggests some reasons for this apparent paradox: Personal concerns don’t rank highly on the lawyer’s “urgency scale;” neither law schools nor the practicing bar address the importance of self-care; lawyers tend to lose “a sense of context” in their own lives; the billable hour is a disincentive to taking personal time; and, being analytical by nature, lawyers aren’t in touch with their feelings and needs. At this contemplative time of year, it would be great if each of us could come up with a few ways to really improve our self-care in 2005.