You can’t burn the candle at both ends. It’s unsustainable. To be a better lawyer — and prevent lawyer burnout — start your day with a sprint.

Table of contents
- Lawyer Burnout: Working Late Is a Vicious Cycle of Chronic Workplace Stress
- Signs of Burnout
- Causes of Burnout in Law Firms
- Do You Want a Life, or Do You Want to Spend Your Life at the Office? Achieving Work Life Balance
- Consequences of Burnout
- Start Your Day with a Sprint for Better Mental and Physical Health
- The “Face Time” Myth
- Now Let’s Get Real About Lawyer Burnout: Recognizing the Early Signs
The early days of my legal career at a big firm involved lots of late nights at the office. It seemed like I was routinely getting home around 11 p.m. — often later. It was a busy time, so late nights were required. But not always. Looking back, working late all the time could have been avoided.
My nocturnal schedule was a choice — a result of my failure to make the necessary choices that could have helped me avoid exhaustion and burnout.
Lawyer Burnout: Working Late Is a Vicious Cycle of Chronic Workplace Stress
When you work late into the night, you get to bed late, then you get to the office late the next morning, at a time when the emails and phone calls start pouring in.
You never give yourself a chance to get ahead, get organized, and get the work done when you should. Instead, you do those things when you can — typically at the end of the day when “it’s quiet,” after your clients have gone home, and all the inputs have stopped.
The biggest problem is that the end of the day is the worst time to do the deep work that’s required to get ahead in your career. This cycle contributes to chronic workplace stress, especially in high-pressure environments like the legal profession, where tight deadlines and emotional demands are prevalent.
Instead of doing what’s most important, your day is spent doing what’s most urgent. Rather than playing golf, it’s like playing tennis, where all you do is return volleys, only to have them fired right back at you.
The truth is, for most people, early morning is the best time to get deep work done.
You may not consider yourself a morning person, and the idea of getting into the office at 7 a.m. is anathema. But have you pondered the possibility that the reason the morning is such a drag is that you’re exhausted and experiencing emotional exhaustion and lawyer burnout from all the late nights?
You can’t burn both ends of the candle. It’s unsustainable. So you need to make a choice.
Signs of Burnout
Recognizing the early warning signs.
Burnout is more than just being tired after a long day; it’s emotional, mental and physical exhaustion from prolonged stress and overwork. Recognizing the early signs of burnout before it gets to you is key to preventing it from affecting your personal and professional life. Here are the signs to look out for:
- Chronic fatigue and exhaustion: Even after a full night’s sleep you still feel drained and can’t muster the energy for your daily tasks.
- Cynicism and detachment: You start to become more cynical about your work, colleagues and clients and emotionally detach from them.
- Decreased productivity and performance: You put in more hours but output decreases and you can’t meet your usual standards.
- Lack of motivation and interest: Tasks that used to excite you now feel like a chore and lead to procrastination and even absenteeism.
- Irritability, anxiety and depression: Your mood drops and you’re more irritable, anxious or depressed than usual.
- Physical symptoms: Headaches, muscle aches and digestive problems become more frequent, your body is under stress.
- Social withdrawal and isolation: You start to pull away from friends, family and colleagues and prefer to be alone.
If you see yourself in several of these signs, act now before it’s too late. Your life is too precious and recognizing these early signs can help you make the changes to protect your mental and physical health.
Causes of Burnout in Law Firms
The systemic causes of overwork.
Law firms are notorious for stress, long hours and heavy workloads. All of which can lead to overwork and burnout. Here are the systemic causes of burnout in law firms:
- Unrealistic expectations and workload: Law firms expect lawyers to work long hours, meet tight deadlines and handle a big caseload. This is overwork and stress.
- No work-life balance: The legal profession takes a lot of time and energy, leaving no room for personal and family life. This imbalance can burn you out quickly.
- Bad management and leadership: Poor management and leadership creates a toxic work environment. Lack of support and inadequate resources makes stress and burnout worse.
- No autonomy and control: Lawyers may feel micromanaged, undervalued and have no control over their work. Lack of autonomy can lead to frustration and burnout.
- Perfectionism and competition: The legal profession is competitive and lawyers feel they have to be perfect. This drive for perfection can lead to overwork and burnout.
Fixing these systemic issues is key to preventing burnout in law firms. By creating a healthier work environment, law firms can help their lawyers with a better work-life balance and reduce burnout.
Do You Want a Life, or Do You Want to Spend Your Life at the Office? Achieving Work Life Balance
What time do lawyers start work? It wasn’t until I stepped away from my legal career that I came to appreciate the benefits of starting early. As a burned out lawyer, I realized the toll the profession had taken on me. Keep in mind that change like this doesn’t happen all at once. I used to start working around 9 a.m. When I decided to make a change, I slowly started setting my alarm a bit earlier. Every month I moved my wake-up call back by 15 minutes. It wasn’t long before I was starting my workday at 8 a.m., then 7 a.m. Now I get up most days around 4:45 a.m., get a workout in, and sit down with a cup of coffee at my iPad around 6 a.m.
I’ve found that I can get more substantive work done from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. than I can from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The fact that it’s better to do important work in the morning is a no-brainer. Literally.
If you’ve been working all day in a stressful profession such as the law, by the evening your brain is likely fried, productivity sags, and it’s almost certain you won’t be doing your best work. Day after day following this routine will most certainly lead to burned out lawyers.
Consequences of Burnout
The personal and professional impacts of burnout.
Burnout can have devastating personal and professional consequences. Here are some of the consequences of burnout:
- Mental and physical health issues: Burnout can lead to depression and anxiety. It can also lead to physical health problems like heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
- Reduced productivity and performance: Burnout can reduce productivity and job satisfaction. This decline in performance can impact the quality of service to clients.
- Relationship breakdown: Burnout can lead to social withdrawal and isolation, breaking down relationships with family, friends and colleagues.
- Career stalling: Burnout can drain motivation and job satisfaction, leading to career stalling. This lack of progress can impact a lawyer’s career advancement and earning potential.
- Higher turnover: Burnout can lead to higher turnover rates as lawyers may choose to leave the profession or switch firms to get out of a toxic work environment.
Address burnout to prevent these consequences and have a healthy, productive and fulfilling career in the profession. By recognizing the signs and taking steps to address burnout, lawyers can protect their mental and physical health and long term success..
Start Your Day with a Sprint for Better Mental and Physical Health
Perhaps more important than when you start working is what you start working on. To borrow from Mark Twain, you’ve got to eat that frog. Work is like fitness — it’s best done in short bursts of intensity, followed by periods of rest and recovery. So start the day with a sprint.
Working in this manner has an added benefit. If you’re like most people, your best ideas (just like building muscle) come during periods of recovery, when your mind is free to wander, and not in the midst of an intense work session. By taking the time to recover, you can then apply these “free-range” ideas during your next period of work.
According to psychologist Ron Friedman, the key to productivity is leveraging the first three hours of your day. Friedman was quoted in the Harvard Business Review about this point:
“Typically, we have a window of about three hours where we’re really, really focused. We’re able to have some strong contributions in terms of planning, in terms of thinking, in terms of speaking well.”
Don’t save your most important work for the end of the day, whether that’s writing a brief, practicing a presentation, or strategizing a transaction. Do it first when your mind and body are fresh. Then get up, take a walk and have something to eat.
Reserve your afternoons for meetings, phone calls, and email. The perfect way to wrap up the day — hopefully by 6 p.m. — is by spending 15 minutes planning the next morning’s to-do list. That way you can head home with a clear head and your next day already mapped out.
The “Face Time” Myth
If you’re a young lawyer you might be thinking: “Yeah, right. There’s no way I can leave that early every day. I’m expected to put in face time.”
Trust me, I understand this mindset. It’s what I thought for most of my career as an associate.
Only later did I learn that for most senior lawyers, the concept of face time is irrelevant. All that matters is results. If the lawyers who assign you work find you reliable, and have confidence that you’ll ask the right questions, exercise good judgment and meet deadlines, then no one (at least no one that matters) will bat an eye if you’re heading for the elevator before the sun sets on a consistent basis.
Now Let’s Get Real About Lawyer Burnout: Recognizing the Early Signs
It’s foolhardy to think that you won’t have to work late once in a while. Of course, the best-laid plans will go awry, and some days will be nothing but a chaotic mess. To paraphrase Cus D’Amato, who was one of Mike Tyson’s boxing managers and trainers, plans are great … until you get punched in the mouth. Many lawyers find themselves experiencing burnout due to these unpredictable and demanding schedules.
Law school often does not equip lawyers with practical coping skills, making it essential to take proactive steps in managing mental health and well-being.
I urge you, though, not to make it a habit. No lawyer should accept that each day in a law firm must end in a conference room littered with carry-out containers of half-eaten Thai food. The legal industry is rife with stress and anxiety, and it’s crucial to avoid falling into unhealthy work patterns.
A legal career is hard. The work is stressful. Adversaries quadruple normal levels of anxiety. It’s easy to get lawyer burnout. Legal professionals must recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout.
Seeking mental health support from colleagues, loved ones, or professional coaching can be invaluable in managing the pressures of the legal profession.
Get up a little earlier. Get your work done. Then get out of the office and into the world. You’ll be a better lawyer — and person — for it. Prioritizing your personal well-being is essential to sustaining a long and healthy career.
Recognizing the signs of lawyer burnout early can help you take necessary steps to mitigate its impact and maintain your overall health.
There’s no bigger contributor to unhappiness than the sense you’ve lost control and your career is consuming your life. For time management tips that will help you get back on track and get the most out of your day, read Jay Harrington’s “Four Productivity Building Blocks of Effective, Efficient and Happy Lawyers.”
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