LAW STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH DAY

Each year the ABA Law Student Division and the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLap) collaborate with law schools and other organizations to offer programs and provide resources for Law Student Mental Health Day.

Statistics demonstrate significant challenges in our profession for attorneys and law students when it comes to mental health and substance abuse.

I serve with an extraordinary group of people on the ABA’s CoLAP Law Student Assistance Committee who have been advocating on this issue and have made significant inroads in recent years convincing state bars to remove questions about mental health and substance abuse from the bar’s character & fitness process. Important resources can be found here

CoLAP Resources for Law Students and Law Schools

I’m delighted that The Practising Law Institute (PLI) has released the following FREE program available on PLI’s website:  

Law School Edition: Viewing Attorney Wellness Through the Lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As a Board member at PLI, I am proud of our leadership on such important issues and for making this video available at no cost. 

Next, I am grateful to colleagues who have led the effort to study the challenge of mental health in law schools and recommend the following articles:

Suffering in Silence: The Survey of Law Student Well-Being and the Reluctance of Law Students to Seek Help for Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns

Report on the ABA CoLAP Law Student Assistance Committee Law School Wellness Survey

Finally, I want to acknowledge the hard work and heavy burden my Student Affairs friends undertake each day as they work to support students.