TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Suzanne Craig Robertson on Apr 1, 2021

"As you point out in your article, lawyer mental health is still taboo, and I’m not sure anyone has written about it so nakedly before," a lawyer wrote in response to Kent Halkett's recent Tennessee Bar Journal article. "We can tell our firms when we need parental leave or medical leave, or even when we have a body ailment. No one feels like we can tell our firm(s) that the pressure of the job is affecting our mental health." This letter and many more were sent to Halkett about his article, “Mental Health in the Legal Profession: A Crisis, a Case Study and a Call to Action." The publication Above the Law covered the article, which urged "the profession take mental health seriously, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. It’s a sensitive subject and Halkett’s article’s had a tremendous impact, not just because mental health has historically been verboten, particularly at high-powered law firms, but because of the death by suicide of Sidley partner Gabe MacConaill." Above the Law then followed up by writing about the responses the Journal received. Read all of the personal and sometimes gut-wrenching letters here