We aren't a relatable group are we? We make huge money, and drive clients into poverty or even bankruptcy. We are sharks, mean and unforgiving. Many of us are addicts, cheats, ethically questionable.
And we all live like the Good Wife characters.
Right?
Ok, I know that was an annoying opening with overgeneralized opinions people may or may not even hold. I do know that as an attorney I often don't want to self-identify with the public perception of my profession.
I also know that those perceptions can be just as false as they are true. I have worked with some lawyers who work on almost nothing, put in longer hours than most of the so-called helping professionals, and receive none of the public accolades for their work. Often, those lawyers work in almost social work positions, representing clients in jail, clients who have no money, clients who are mentally challenged, or child clients. And very often they end up with burnout - in a phenomenon known as compassion fatigue, or secondary trauma.
Compassion fatigue occurs when, in this case, an attorney has had so many difficult, sad clients, that the attorney loses that ability to relate with the client. The attorney is swamped with too many hurting clients, with no real ability to help.
It is an overwhelming feeling, the desire to help others. Many of us went to law school with that lofty goal, to help others, and some of us graduated with that goal still hotly pursued. Then we got jobs, only a few of us, in those traditionally vaunted places where lawyers help those less fortunate.
Because the jobs at legal aid or public defender or guardian ad litem style offices are so few, and so poorly funded, they rarely come open. When they
'do, the applications roll in, and the candidate who is chosen is immediately swept up in huge number of cases. That newly hired lawyer is generally thrilled and motivated to help every last person, to resolve every single injustice rendered.
And that attitude remains - for days, weeks or even years. But it almost never remains forever. There in that space between injustice resolution and unending cases that never quite finish, is compassion fatigue, and its friend secondary trauma.
Much worse than the misunderstood profession and the few jobs open for opportunity to do something other than make money, compassion fatigue sneaks in and stills that heart pounding desire to really do good for others. Secondary trauma inflicts blow after blow as attorneys - seen as cold and uninvolved at times - come to care about their clients who have experienced bone chilling pain and wrong treatment. The client has experience trauma, there is no doubt - and research is proving more and more that those attorneys, just like other helping professions, have experienced secondary trauma.
Secondary trauma is a bit harder to spot, especially in attorneys, who have been Socratic methoded and judge lambasted as well as being the butt of many jokes. The sure fact is, though, that it is there in attorneys who for any length of time seek to help those clients who most need help. The signs are just under the surface - the lack of sleep, the teary eyes in an odd situation, and sadly, often excessive drinking or substance abuse. Over time, that secondary trauma, and the symptoms, wrap up into a much harder nugget to crack: compassion fatigue.
Stay tuned for the next installment on compassion fatigue, or "have you hugged a lawyer today?"
