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Vol. 72, No. 12, December 1999 |
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Stress on the Rise
Some Bench-Bar Committee members find one survey result especially
surprising; others claim it only matches what they've already
seen and heard. But all agree that it is a dismaying finding:
91 percent of respondents report that they think law practice
is becoming more stressful each year. This was a new item in
the 1999 Bench-Bar Survey, not included in the last survey in
1997, so no comparison can be made as to whether the situation
has worsened.
The survey also didn't ask why stress is rising. Is it
the general "in your face" attitude flourishing in
our society? Is it the fact that faxes, email, and cell phones
- while helpful tools - also crank up the pressure
to do everything in a hurry, including law practice? Is it the
lack of civility legal professionals show each other in the daily
course of business, causing many to feel battle weary at the
end of the day?
The answer may be all these factors and others. But in light
of the survey's results, many Bench-Bar Committee members
surmise that incivility is a major contributing factor to how
lawyers feel about their work. "One thing I find scary,"
says Milwaukee attorney Karri Fritz-Klaus, Bench-Bar Committee
member, "is that among the newer lawyers coming into the
profession and also among my peers, we are losing so many good,
ethical attorneys who are saying, 'I don't want to
do this anymore.' We are losing great people to other walks
of life, and that's sad."
The State Bar's 1998
Membership Survey (reported in Wisconsin Lawyer, October
1998) bears out Fritz-Klaus' observations. In that survey,
30 percent of respondents said that if they had it to do all
over again, they would not choose law as their profession. And
25 percent said they were considering leaving law practice within
the next five years. While some in the latter group simply were
planning to retire, 75.5 percent of resident lawyers who said
they were thinking of leaving said it was because they were feeling
frustrated and disillusioned.
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