By the Juris Education Interview Team
Stephanie Lewis is the Founder of LiveWellFlow, LLC. She is a certified mindfulness meditation and qigong instructor, a national board-certified health and wellness coach, and a recently retired managing attorney.
Mental health support is critical in the legal profession because lawyers operate in high-stakes, high-conflict, competitive environments. Chronic stress is normal but there is little training in how to manage that stress. Studies have indicated that mental health declines after entering law school. The pressure to suppress emotion, prioritize productivity, and define worth through external achievement all contribute to that. During my recent presentation at the 2025 Mindfulness in Law Society Conference & Retreat, I also spoke about the cognitive dissonance that arises when lawyers feel internal conflict between their personal values and the demands of the system they work within. This dissonance is inherent in the practice of law. It is part of an attorney’s job. But it can lead to disengagement, burnout, or worse if not acknowledged and internally managed. Supporting mental health helps preserve lawyers’ capacity for ethical decision-making, empathy, and sustainable professional growth.
Studies have shown that law students typically enter school with relatively normal levels of well-being, motivation, and mental health. However, these signs of well-being begin to decline as early as the first year. Anxiety, distress, and substance use increase, often significantly. Acclimating to a highly competitive environment, fearing failure, and operating in a culture that rewards perfectionism and overwork can diminish the intrinsic motivation of students and early-career attorneys and create conditions that make it difficult for them to care for their mental and emotional well-being.
Practices like mindfulness meditation, breathwork, and qigong can offer law students and early-career attorneys simple, grounding ways to manage stress, reconnect with themselves, and build greater self-awareness. Coaching can also provide space to reflect, process challenges, and regain a sense of agency in a system that can often feel overwhelming or rigid. These are practices and programs that I offer through LiveWellFlow.
The American Bar Association, state bar lawyer assistance programs, the Mindfulness in Law Society, and the Institute for Well-Being in Law are also committed to improving the well-being of legal professionals.
Law schools can do many things to support student mental health. They can integrate wellness programming into orientation and curriculum and foster cultures of belonging, especially for underrepresented students. They can also train faculty and administrators to recognize signs of distress and normalize help-seeking behavior.
Institutions play a pivotal role in modeling what it means to prioritize human well-being—and in making it safe for students to do the same.
Yes. Attorneys are highly competent individuals. Generally, they are the ones others come to for help. They may not be accustomed to seeking help for themselves and may see it as a sign of weakness. They may also accept that stress is the cost of success without questioning alternatives to a path that leads to burnout. It takes both courage and leadership for law students and attorneys to give themselves permission to take steps that will better their own well-being.
First, when law students and attorneys build new practices to help them increase their awareness, calm their nervous system, and increase their awareness, it's important that they take baby steps. So often I see clients try to take on too much change too fast. That is a recipe for ineffectiveness.
Second, they should select practices and new habits that are important to them and not what others think they should do. That is the only way a new practice will be successful.
Third, learning to set boundaries early so that they build time into their life for practices, activities, and people that nourish and support them and their well-being.
Juris Education is proud to feature insights from leaders like Stephanie Lewis, to help pre-law students better understand how to care for their mental health throughout the demanding journey to law school.
