Suffering in Silence
A Conversation with Professor Jerome Organ on Law Student Well-Being
“Do I dare, disturb the universe?”
T.S. Eliot
Q. Professor Organ, thank you for taking time out of your day to talk to me a little about law student mental health. Can you tell me what prompted your interest in this topic?
A. When I served as associate dean from 2005-2009, I became aware of college students’ misuse of performance enhancing drugs and wanted to explore the extent to which that behavior continued when those college students entered law school. I connected with one of the researchers focusing on alcohol and drug use among college students, and that researcher brought to my attention that David Jaffe, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the American University Washington College of Law, was interested in exploring mental health issues among law students. I reached out to David, and we began working on a survey and exploring possible funding sources, eventually finding some financial support from the American Bar Association (ABA) Enterprise Grant and the Dave Nee Foundation to support the 2014 Survey of Law Student Well Being. [See this and this for more.]
Q. What is the Survey of Law Student Well-Being (SLSWB) and why did something like this only recently emerge?
A. The 2014 Survey of Law Student Well Being (2014 SLSWB) was the first multi-school study that focused on alcohol and drug use among law students (including use and misuse of prescription drugs), along with assessing the extent to which respondents were dealing with a variety of mental health concerns. The 2014 SLSWB also included questions on help-seeking behavior because of concerns we had that the culture of law school—which can be very competitive and can discourage any sign of vulnerability—may function to dissuade law students from seeking the help they need.
A few years later we obtained funding from AccessLex Institute to do a second survey—the 2021 Survey of Law Student Well Being (2021 SLSWB). The key addition in the 2021 SLSWB was a series of questions regarding the extent to which respondents had experienced trauma and the extent to which that trauma was having an ongoing effect on their well-being. [Read that here.]
Q. What are some of the common stressors that contribute to the decline of mental health for law students and attorneys?
A. The research that Ken Sheldon and Larry Krieger did roughly 20 years ago showed declines in well-being among first-year law students. Their analysis focused on self-determination theory as a lens for thinking about well-being. Self-determination theory posits that well-being is positively correlated with a sense of competence, positive relationships, and a feeling of autonomy support. With that in mind, it should not surprise anyone that first-year law students see a decline in well-being. They have little sense of competence as they are just getting started on a new learning curve and frequently find it very challenging. At many law schools, the sense of competitiveness and atomism, along with the significant amount of time spent studying, means students may not have positive relationships with their peers and may see a diminishment in positive relationships with family and friends. Finally, given that what they study and when they take their courses are all defined for them, they have little sense of autonomy support. The corresponding decline in well-being is frequently amplified for those students who are not getting enough sleep and not getting enough exercise and may not be eating well.
Q. How much does a politically polarizing climate on campus contribute to student well-being?
A. I don’t think that helps much either, as it can create anxiety for students about expressing themselves honestly when one may not appreciate how one’s peers will respond to their opinions or observations—particularly early in the first year of law school when students don’t know each other very well. This also can be a particular challenge for conservative law students given that the faculty at most law schools lean progressive. This also can be a challenge for students of faith given that most law schools are secular and may not be affirming of perspectives grounded in faith traditions.
Q. Amy Levin recently wrote an article on law student well-being, where she notes that “one of the leading stressors causing dissatisfaction is attorneys’ lack of time for themselves and their families.” How much does “lack of time” contribute to the question of mental health and what can law students and attorneys do to reclaim a healthy work/rest balance within the existing legal culture?
A. I think first-year students particularly can easily feel a sense that they have to spend almost all of their available time studying. When students who historically have had significant academic success find themselves moving slowly along the learning curve, it can be somewhat discomforting. It is pretty natural that they might respond by deciding that they just need to spend more time studying. Then when they are making choices between study or sleep, study or exercise, or study or socialize, study tends to always win, which creates habits that reflect a lack of balance. I encourage our first-year students to think about not studying more (spending more time studying), but to think about studying more efficiently (getting more studying done in less time). To study efficiently, students need to be getting sleep and getting exercise and being socially connected—those things should be seen not as being in competition with studying, but as being essential to well-being and efficient studying.
Q. The research from Levin also points out that females, because they experience law school differently from males,experience a “higher levels of psychiatric distress.” Since recent ABA research shows that women have become the majority for law school enrollment, how important is it for legal education to adjust its culture (e.g., Socratic Method, Academic Schedule)?
A. I think legal education has to be more thoughtful generally about the nature of the law school culture. Law school is a socialization experience where law students learn what it means to be lawyers—but most of that happens in what is described as the “hidden curriculum”—without a great deal of intentionality. The ABA added a new accreditation standard in 2022 requiring law schools to provide opportunities to support the professional identity formation of law students. This can be particularly important for first-generation law students, for women, for members of underrepresented populations. Trying to navigate the journey from law student to lawyer often requires individualized support for students with unique life experiences and distinct ideas of what they are being called to do and be as a lawyer.
The law school culture also has to account for the reality that far more students are dealing with mental health challenges. The percentage of survey respondents with at least one mental health diagnosis increased from 26% in the 2014 SLSWB to 50% in the 2021 SLSWB. In addition, in the 2021 SLSWB, roughly 20% of respondents scored a 33 or above on the PCL-5, a screening tool for PTSD, suggesting that the trauma they have experienced continues to interfere meaningfully with their daily existence.
Q. I noticed that the data in your papers suggests that 3Ls (versus 1Ls) are less likely to help their classmates. Is this still true and why do you think that is?
A. That was true in both the 2014 SLSWB and the 2021 SLSWB and suggests that the hidden curriculum is shaping law students to be less attentive to or less responsible to be supportive of their peers who are dealing with substance use or mental health issues.
Q. One of the things you noted is the importance of deans addressing this issue during orientation since it’s their first real opportunity to “set a positive, supportive tone for well-being for the entire student body.” How could this be done effectively?
A. We have learned that it helps to be forthright and intentional in communicating with first-year law students about the aspects of the law school culture and law school experience that might present well-being challenges. We are explicit about messaging the importance of self-care (sleep, exercise, social connection) and about the importance of seeking help if students feel like they are struggling and may need counseling to navigate the challenges of law school. More law schools are making counseling resources available, some of it in the form of counselors embedded within the law school.
Q. The glaring statistic you have in both SLSWB reports is the reasons student give for not seeking help. The number one reason discouraging students to seek help struggling with substance abuse is the “potential threat to bar admission.” You even mention this issue gets worse as students edge closer to graduation, suggesting that maybe “students are getting messages indicating that seeking help for mental health concerns or alcohol/drug concerns may be problematic for their academic or professional careers.” Can you talk to me about this problem and whether the ABA can lawfully ask and reject a student struggling with forms of substance abuse?
A. This was one of the biggest concerns we had coming out of the 2014 SLSWB, and we were disappointed that the data were only slightly better in the 2021 SLSWB. David Jaffe and his colleague Janet Stearns at Miami have worked tirelessly over the last several years to communicate with boards of law examiners to change the nature of some of the character and fitness questions on the bar exam. They have met with great success and have seen many jurisdictions modify their questions. In addition, in Minnesota, we have worked with the Board of Law Examiners to have their representative specifically emphasize to first-year students the fact that the Board of Law Examiners wants to see students with substance use or mental health challenges get help and noting that getting help will make admission to the bar easier rather than harder.
Q. The other piece to the question above is struggles with mental health. The number two reason (one being “finance”) discouraging students from seeking help in the 2021 SLSWB report is they think they can handle it on their own. What can law schools do better to reduce the social stigma around getting help?
A. Given the increasing prevalence of mental health challenges in young adults, the social stigma around getting help has declined. That is one positive data point between the 2014 SLSWB and the 2021 SLSWB—the fact that stigma is less of a factor in discouraging respondents from seeking help for substance use or mental health issues. I think the increasing availability of counseling resources also manifests that there is less of a stigma than there had been several years ago.
Professor Jerome (“Jerry”) Organ is the Bakken Professor of Law at St. Thomas School of Law and co-director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions. A native of Wisconsin, Jerry graduated magna cum laude from Miami University and attended Vanderbilt University School of Law as a Patrick Wilson Scholar. At Vanderbilt, he served as an editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif.
After clerking for Justice William G. Callow of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Jerry entered private practice with Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He practiced law for five years, predominantly in the environmental law area. Full faculty bio here.
For more resources, listen to my conversation with Jonathan Todres (here) and Amy Levin (here) on work-life balance and law student well-being (respectively). LSM has also been hosting a number of mental health related conversations as part of our Wellness Program run by Michelle Williams, who you can reach out to at mwilliams@clsnet.org for help. Those episodes can be found here.