IWIL Catalyst – July 2023 - Institute For Well-Being In Law

IWIL Catalyst – July 2023

Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–and Keep–Friends
By Marisa G. Franco, PhD.

Book Review By: Amy L. Kurlansky, Esq.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the IWIL Catalyst book review! We’re hoping that this will become a feature of the IWIL Catalyst/Alert that you enjoy as much as we do. We plan to highlight books that have a wellness focus, providing you with even more tools on your own well-being journey.

Amy L. Kurlansky, has served as the Reference Librarian at the Hamilton County Law Library since March 2018.

Prior to joining the Law Library, Ms. Kurlansky, worked as an Attorney at Pro Seniors, Inc., as a GAL for abused children in the foster care system, and as a Child Support Administrative Hearing Officer.

As a Staff Attorney for Pro Seniors, Inc., Ms. Kurlansky presented on the topics of Medicaid and Elder Abuse to community groups, social workers, and other attorneys. Ms. Kurlansky also collaborated on the 2014 OSBA Elder Law Handbook chapters on Medicaid and Elder Abuse.

Ms. Kurlansky belongs to the Ohio State Bar Association and the Cincinnati Bar Association. Ms. Kurlansky is a graduate of the CBA CALL (Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers) Program. She serves as an appointed member of the CBA Admissions Committee, and as the Chair of the CBA Health and Well Being Committee. She also participates in the Legal Research & Information Resources Committee, the VOICE committee, Lawyers Connecting Beyond the Law, and is a former chair of CBA Elder Law Committee. Ms. Kurlansky is a member of the American Association of Law Librarians, the Ohio Regional Association of Law Librarians, and served as the immediate past chair of the Ohio Regional Association of Law Librarians County Law Library Special Interest Group. Ms. Kurlansky serves on the IWIL Catalyst committee.

Affective Forecasting: Understanding the Ways We Think About
Our Future Emotions and Their Impact on Decision-Making

David E. Kouba, Esq.

When advising clients, attorneys often must forecast future developments and predict their implications. These can be high-stakes decisions, and attorneys approach them accordingly—collecting information, evaluating contingencies, deliberating alternatives, and weighing benefits and risks. Forward-looking decisions, however, are not confined to attorneys’ professional lives. Every day, lawyers make decisions that impact their personal lives as well. These decisions depend not only on what might happen in the future, but how the attorney thinks the possible outcomes will make them feel.

Predicting future emotions—a process referred to as “affective forecasting”—is therefore central to the way we evaluate and choose among alternatives. When making a career decision, for example, we are likely to imagine what things would be like if we take different paths, consider how those possible options might make us feel, and factor our predicted emotional response into that decision.

Research, however, suggests that we often miss the mark when predicting how future events will affect our emotions. We tend to exaggerate our expected feelings, and our current emotions, whether they be good or bad, often distort the way we see ourselves in the future. A disconnect between expectations and outcomes can produce disappointment and unmet expectations. Moreover, when our negative emotions discourage us from taking positive actions, they can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Either scenario can challenge and undermine attorney well-being and mental health. Accordingly, this article explores these challenges and possible strategies that might mitigate their effect.

David Kouba is counsel in Arnold & Porter’s Washington D.C. office and spends much of his professional time defending consumer fraud and products liability litigation. In addition to practicing law, David co-chairs the firm’s well-being committee, serves on the Institute for Well-Being in Law’s Research and Scholarship Committee, and has spoken and written frequently on subjects related to attorney mental health and well-being.

Are you interested in presenting at the 2024 (January 23-25) IWIL Virtual Conference? This is your chance to submit your presentation proposal. There are four separate tracks:

Individual well-being
Workplace well-being (for people who are working on building workplace well-being at an organizational level in the legal profession)
Law school well-being (for people who are working on building well-being in law schools)
Well-being on the state and local level (for people who are working on building well-being on the state and local level)

To review proposal criteria and submit your presentation for consideration, click here. Deadline for submissions is August 18, 2023.

Research suggests that we often miss the mark when predicting how future events will affect our emotions. We exaggerate our expected feelings, and our current emotions distort how we see ourselves in the future. A disconnect between expectations and outcomes creates disappointment. When negative emotions discourage positive actions, they can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In “Affective Forecasting: Understanding the Ways We Think About Our Future Emotions and Their Impact on Decision-Making,” David Kouba, IWIL Research & Scholarship Committee member, explains this phenomenon and provides tools to enhance accuracy in predicting future emotions.”

Book Review of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–and Keep–Friends, by Marisa G. Franco, PhD.

Dr. Franco was one of IWIL’s featured speakers during 2023’s Well-Being Week in Law.

Review By: Amy L. Kurlansky, Esq.

LEGAL PROFESSION

Important New Resource at the Crossroads of Professional Identity and Well-Being by Janet Stearns, Holloran Center Professional Identity Implementation Blog. >> Link. Stearns reviews Larry Krieger’s updated booklet for law students, Create Success Without Stress in the Law: New Science for Happiness, Health and Positive Professional Identity (2023). The booklet has six major sections and Stearns recommends when the booklet would best be shared with students.

Lawyer stress management: 6 essential tips, Thomson Reuters, June 20, 2023. >> Link. By first profiling the current state of lawyer stress, this article places well-being as an essential point to emphasize within the legal profession. Moreover, the authors detailed 6 research-backed tips to actionably promote this well-being on an individual basis.

Lawyer Well-Being in Biglaw by JoAnn Hathaway and Molly Ranns, featuring Anthony Sallah and

Stacy Sampeck, On Balance Podcast, State Bar of Michigan, June 12, 2023. >> Link. In this podcast episode, Hathaway and Ranns talk with Sallah and Sampeck, two representatives from firms cemented among the ranks of Biglaw. Using their experiences, the four legal practitioners detail the difficulties of balancing work with home life, the pressure to individuate oneself as a new associate, and the current work being done to address the deteriorating mental states of lawyers across the country.

How far will the SRA go with its new wellbeing guidance? by Brian Rogers, LegalFutures, June 7, 2023. >> Link. In critically examining the UK Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) recent guidance to address flaws in workplace culture, Rogers points out the lack of specificity present within the new regulation’s language, thereby explaining that the onus shifting to individual whistleblowers may in fact discourage legal practitioners from voicing workplace concerns.

The State of Judges’ Well-Being: A Report on the 2019 National Judicial Stress and Resiliency Survey by Terry A. Maroney, David X. Swenson, Joan Bibelhausen and David Marc, Judicature, Duke Law School and Bolch Judicial Institute, 2023. >> Link. Through a digestible account of data points from one of the United States’ largest studies on judicial stress and resilience to date, this report comprehensively illustrates the unique hardships faced by judges while also leaving room for hope regarding the progress to come.

Affirmative Action’s Demise Threatens Big Law Diversity Pipeline by Tatyana Monnay, Bloomberg Law, June 30, 2023. >> Link. In this article, Monnay provides a critical view of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down affirmative action within Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, detailing how this decision could negatively affect diversity within Big Law firms that stick to stringent recruiting practices.

BEYOND THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Whole Health Approach Boosts Mental and Spiritual Well-Being by Wayne Jonas, reviewed by Michelle Quirk, Psychology Today, June 20, 2023. >> Link. In this brief article, Doctor Jonas provides actionable, data-driven steps that an individual can take to promote their own physical and mental well-being.

Sleep Temperature Linked to Overall Sleep Quality, Wellbeing by Dan Witters, Gallup, June 21, 2023. >> Link. Backing his account with data from recent surveys, Witters writes that being too hot (rather than too cold) while sleeping is one of the most frequent and detrimental factors of poor sleep quality, which could thereby negatively impact well-being. This account argues that high sleep temperature is detrimental to both individual emotional health and economic progress.

3 Ways Childhood Traumas Impact Work Productivity And Well-Being by Luciana Paulise, Forbes, June 9, 2023. >> Link. Paulise writes with understanding and empathy in this article for adult professionals who carry the emotional remnants of childhood trauma, detailing the detrimental impacts carried from development upon the interpersonal relationships, self-esteem/confidence, and stress management/productivity of such professionals.

As workforce well-being dips, leaders ask: What will it take to move the needle? by Jen Fisher, Paul H. Silverglate, Colleen Bordeaux, and Michael Gilmartin, Deloitte Insights, June 20, 2023. >> Link. Following a survey of 3,150 professional executives, managers, and employees from across four countries, this article contextualizes the still-declining state of employee well-being alongside the importance of executive accountability and policy transparency.

IWIL Law School Programming

Throughout the 2023-24 Academic Year

IWIL Conference

January 23-25, 2024

Well-Being Week in the Law 2024

May 6-10, 2024

We’ve reached the midpoint of the year – how are you taking care of yourself? I was prompted to ask myself this question when I received a mass email from my doctor’s office entitled, “Are You Taking Time to Care for You? The email banner read, “Health Care is Self-Care.” The email talked about annual checkups, blood work, and screenings as part of your self-care plans. This is a good time to reflect on continuing practices or discontinuing practices that no longer serve you. What have you taken from the programs you’ve attended this year? Remember, all the Well-Being Week in Law resources are still available on our website. Ask yourself if you are taking time to care for you – in any ways that support your overall well-being.