CELL Blog | Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

                Thanks to Steve for giving me this opportunity to get the word out about my new book—1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School (Thomson West 2009) (420 pages)—while also sharing some things I learned while writing it . This post about psychological distress in law students is the first of three guest posts.  My book is branded as “a candid step-by-step roadmap to both academic and emotional success in law school’s crucial first year.”  Parts of what follow are modified excerpts from Chapter 18—“Maintaining Well-Being.”

Part I: Psychological Distress in Law Students

               Our students are struggling. As a former law student and veteran law teacher, I knew, of course, that first-year law students are under stress.  But until researching the book, I had no idea of the depth or extent of their suffering. I discovered that studies have long shown that law students suffer disproportionately from stress, anxiety, and depression. Data from as far back as 1957 show that psychological distress in law students significantly outpaces not only the general population, but other graduate student populations, including medical students.

               A 1980s study of University of Arizona law and medical students found that law students scored significantly higher than both the general population and medical students in nearly every category of psychological dysfunction measured, including anxiety, depression, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, hostility, and obsessive-compulsiveness. (Citations omitted to avoid cluttering up this post, but are available on request.)

               While law school no doubt attracts some people already inclined toward emotional distress, evidence suggests a causal relationship between law school and psychological dysfunction. One study found that law students begin school with psychopathological symptom responses similar to the general population, but that those symptoms become substantially elevated during law school and after graduation. On depression scales, for example, 17-40 percent of law students were found to suffer from depression compared to 3-9 percent of the general population. (citation omitted).  A recent study reached similar conclusions about first-year students, finding “large increases in negative affect, depression, and physical symptomology” between the beginning and end of the first year. (citation omitted) 

               To the extent law school is responsible for causing emotional distress in law students, one doesn’t have to look far for plausible explanations: the make-it-or-break-it single-exam format, the heavy emphasis on grades and corresponding worries about failure, the competitive environment, high student-teacher ratios, intimidating instructional methods, brutal workloads, burdensome debt-loads, lack of performance feedback, the adversarial nature of the legal system in which law students are constantly immersed, the emphasis on objective analytical thinking over personal values and emotions, strains on personal relationships, doubts about whether law school is the right career path, and, of course, for 1Ls, general fear and uncertainty about what to expect.

               What law professors can do to help. The research I came across got me thinking about the issue, but it took an email from Professor Joan Malmud, University of Oregon, to move me to try to do something to help. Joan participated in a chapter in 1L of a Ride about first-year legal writing (in which I pose fifteen questions to five writing professors at different schools). During our correspondence, she slipped this paragraph into an email:

I don’t know if you’re considering a section on depression in law school, but if it’s a section that would fit, I would include it. For the first several years of teaching, I would find out when the year was over that several of my students suffered depression during their first year. As their teacher, I sometimes saw odd behavior but I never ascribed it to depression; sometimes, though, I saw no remarkable behavior. I felt so sad that my students had been suffering, and I hadn’t known about it and was unable to reach out to them.

               Her email made me sad too because it got me thinking about all of the students suffering from depression that I no doubt overlook year after year.  Indeed, many depressed students are probably unaware of their own plight. In January 2008 and again in January 2009 (last week, as I write this), on the first day of the second semester in Torts II, I altered my usual approach, which was to simply pick up where we left off before the first exams and holiday break. Instead, I started out talking about depression. 

               I tell my students about the studies. I read Joan’s email to them. I give them the phone number and location of the university counseling center and distribute a list of depression symptoms. I tell them to not accept depression as a normal consequence of law school. Finally, I assure them there is no shame in suffering from anxiety or depression, offering the confession that I’ve suffered from depression and have even taken anti-depressants.

               The results of this little discussion have been so startling that I’m thinking it may be the most important thing I do for my students all year long.  On both occasions, several students contacted me afterwards to say thank you, share their own experiences with psychological distress, and, in some cases, seek help. One student, suffering from acute depression and panic attacks, came to see me in such an anguished state that it broke my heart.  She had hidden her distress from everyone.

               Other students started coming to me too—for the first time—seeking counsel about other types of problems, as if they suddenly realized I’m a human being and not only an imperious Torts prof. One student wrote, apparently surprised, “I actually believe you really do care about our experience.” He said, “If you keep this up, I may even start rooting for the Florida Gators [my alma mater] when they’re not playing Tennessee.” In SEC-country, where football is king and rivalries are fierce, this expression of appreciation was equivalent to offering me his first-born.

               Amidst all the cases and rules, consider taking a few minutes to talk to your classes candidly about psychological distress in law students. Not only will your students appreciate it, you could help change some of their lives for the better. Simply acknowledging that depression and anxiety are common issues for law students will help them.  Students tend to think they’re the only ones struggling. Hearing from their professor that they’re not alone gives them a kind of “permission” that it’s okay to feel bad.

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