Sign In
    Wisconsin Lawyer
    December 01, 1999

    Wisconsin Lawyer December 1999: 1999 Bench-Bar Survey - Stress on the Rise

    <Previous Page

    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.

    Wisconsin Lawyer


Join the conversation! Log in to comment.

News & Pubs Search

-
Format: MM/DD/YYYY