Ed.
note:
Please
welcome
Vivia
Chen
back
to
the
pages
of
Above
the
Law.
Subscribe
to
her
Substack,
“The
Ex-Careerist,” here.
Unless
your
perception
of
law
firm
life
is
warped
by Suits, The
Good
Wife,
or Ally
McBeal,
no
person
would
think
of
law
as
a
fun,
sexy
profession.
And
you
certainly
don’t
go
into
it
for
its
salubrious
lifestyle.
Biglaw
in
particular
runs
on
insecurity.
Not
only
do
lawyers
work
insane
hours,
they’re
expected
to
perform
with
absolute
precision.
From
day
one,
the
message
is
clear:
Miss
a
deadline
(even
if
arbitrary)
or
make
an
error
(however
inconsequential),
and
your
career
is
toast.
The
culture
of
extreme
perfectionism
breeds
fear
and
anxiety,
yet
it
remains
the
industry
standard.
The
question
is
what
this
is
doing
to
lawyers’
mental
state.
A recent
study offers
some
answers.
According
to
a
survey
of
764
lawyers
by
Krill
Strategies,
JC
Coaching
&
Consulting,
Ambitionprofile,
and
NALP,
the
price
is
“stress,
depression,
workaholism,
resistance
to
feedback,
and
reduced
engagement,
motivation,
and
longevity.”
Among
lawyers
who
scored
high
on
the
perfectionist
scale,
50.6%
showed
elevated
depression,
compared
to
7.1%
in
the
low-perfectionism
group.
Perfectionist
lawyers
also
tend
to
have
shorter
tenures
at
their
firms:
5.3
years,
compared
to
8.4
years
for
low-perfectionists.
And
you
guessed
it:
women
reported
higher
levels
of
perfectionism
and
stress,
suggesting
that
“that
perfectionism
may
be
a
contributing
factor
to
elevated
turnover
risk
among
women
lawyers.”
It’s
a
troubling
picture
but
is
Biglaw
aware
of
the
problem?
Does
it
care?
I
asked
Patrick
Krill,
one
of
the
authors
of
the
study,
those
questions
and
more.
Below
is
an
edited
version
of
our
chat.
A
chicken
and
egg
question:
Do
more
neurotic
people
flock
to
brutal
professions
like
Biglaw,
or
is
it
the
profession
that
turns
normal
people
into
crazed
perfectionists?
Probably
both.
Historically,
a
high
number
of
perfectionists
go
into
the
profession.
It’s
a
disposition
that
a
lot
of
people
come
pre-packaged
with.
But
there’s
also
the
work
environment.
It’s
firm-specific
whether
it’s
making
someone’s
perfectionism
worse.
Isn’t
it
a
given
that
Biglaw
promotes
an
unrealistic
level
of
perfectionism
and
that
only
the
truly
exceptional
make
it
to
the
top?
We
need
to
distinguish
between
perfectionism
and maladaptive
perfectionism,
which
entails
setting
unrealistically
high
standards.
Professional
athletes
have
high
standards
but
they
don’t
internalize
failure
like
lawyers
do.
Maladaptive
perfectionists
have
a
very
pronounced
fear
of
failure
and
excessive
self-criticism;
they
beat
themselves
up.
Even
though
maladaptive
perfectionism
has
long
been
understood
to
be
bad
for
people’s
health,
it’s
almost
a
badge
of
honor
for
lawyers.
What
surprised
me
in
the
study
is
how
clear
it
was
that
this
trait
is
undermining
lawyer’s
success,
and
yet
they’re
not
aware
of
it.
If
you
had
to
name
one
culprit
that’s
responsible
for
this
miserable
state
of
affairs,
what
would
it
be?
Fear.
At
some
firms,
fear
permeates
from
the
top
down.
It
can
be
a
management
style
where
fear
is
the
primary
motivator.
Fear
is
jet
fuel
for
maladaptive
perfectionism.
Subscribe
to
read
more
at
The
Ex-Careerist….
Vivia
Chen writes “The
Ex-Careerist” column
on
Substack
where
she
unleashes
her
unvarnished
views
about
the
intersection
of
work,
life,
and
politics.
A
former
lawyer,
she
was
an
opinion
columnist
at
Bloomberg
Law
and
The
American
Lawyer.
Subscribe
to
her
Substack
by
clicking
here:
