August Message from the New Lawyer Division Board

Somewhere between law school and your first few years of practice, someone probably told you to take care of yourself. Fewer people probably told you how, or made space for you to actually do it. 

Last year, New Lawyer Division Chair Claudia Salinas spent her whole term reminding us that wellness and work-life balance are not extras in this profession; they are requirements. That message stuck with the board, and it feels especially timely right now, as summer winds down and a lot of us are realizing a single week off was never going to undo months of billable hours, deadlines, and the habit of putting everyone else’s needs ahead of our own.

That realization is probably why a post from an old friend caught my attention this week. Forty years ago, in third grade, when summer vacation meant two whole months off, I met Leeann Charters, a girl with a gift for saying exactly what needs to be said. Leeann and I have not talked directly in thirty years, but she is still the same girl I knew back then, horse crazy, big hair, and a die-hard fan of every band that ever wore spandex and eyeliner on MTV. I still get a little dose of her honesty through social media. This week she posted something that stopped me cold:

“The recovery time for burnout is 1 to 3 years. Not as soon as you stop. Not a long weekend or a 2-week vacation. Not a spa trip. Not a Sunday afternoon bubble bath. You cannot rest yourself out of years of damage overnight.”

That hit hard because lawyers are under enormous pressure and the workload rarely slows down long enough to invite real rest. Burnout does not resolve itself in a weekend, and it will not resolve itself just because you finally took the trip you kept postponing. It takes months, sometimes years, of actually changing the pace, the workload, and the habits that got you there.

This is not a reminder to book a vacation. It is a reminder that recovery is not a single event, it is a practice: setting real boundaries, saying no when you need to, and asking for help before, as Leeann might put it, you are living on a prayer instead of a plan. Start small. Block time on your calendar and protect it the way you would a filing deadline. Tell someone, a mentor, a colleague, a friend, when you are running on empty instead of waiting for them to notice. 

That is part of why the New Lawyer Division exists, to make sure no one has to navigate this stage of practice alone. Come to an event, join a committee, or reach out to an NLD board member and talk to someone who gets it. Taking care of yourself is not a reward you earn after the work is done; it is what makes the work sustainable in the first place.

Speaking of showing up, mark your calendar:

• The NLD is partnering with the ADR Committee on a virtual mediation CLE on Tuesday, September 15th, from noon to 1 p.m. JAMS mediator Bill VanDeWeghe will cover practical strategies for preparing and conducting effective mediations, engaging key decision-makers early, and building creative settlement structures that actually resolve cases. (CLE) Preparing, Persuading, and Resolving – 12 Strategies for Mediation Success

Stephanie S. Germani, Esq.
NLD Member-At-Large
Co-Editor of For The Record