Well-Being in the Legal Profession: Oxygen, Aspirin, or Bling?

In 2017, The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (now the Institute for Well-Being in Law) released its groundbreaking report, The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change.  Among other things, the report asserted that lawyer well-being is directly tied to the ethical duties of competence, diligence, communication, and relationships with people other than clients.

Six years later, conversations about well-being are more commonplace than ever before, but has our profession adopted the Task Force’s argument that well-being is essential to our professional conduct (oxygen)?  Is it something we attend to when we’re already unwell or when our ethics have already been called into question (aspirin)?  Or is it still considered a “nice-to-have” that we’ll attend to when we have the time (bling)? 

This session will examine these questions from the perspectives of the regulators responsible for overseeing lawyer and judicial discipline, defense counsel who represent clients in disciplinary proceedings, and professionals who are advocating for and providing well-being services to members of the profession. 

Attendees will leave the session with an increased understanding of the intersection between well-being and ethics, and they will be challenged to examine their own beliefs and actions surrounding the ethics of well-being.

Panelists

• James Bell, Hoover Hull Turner, LLP
• Mark Carnell, Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission
• Loretta Oleksy, Thought Kitchen & Chair, ISBA Well-Being Committee

This CLE has been approved by the Indiana Supreme Court Office of Admissions and Continuing Education for 1 hour ethics.  For those unable to attend the live presentation, an on-demand replay will be available after the event.

The CLE is freely offered and co-sponsored by Thought Kitchen and the Indiana State Bar Association's Well-Being Committee.