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GAZETTE
MARCH 1992
Pictured at the first meeting of the Barristers Professional Conduct Tribunal were
(Back Row - L to R) Peter Somers BL, Peter Kelly SC, Kevin Feeney SC, and
Harvey Kenny BL. (Front Row - L to R) Gerard Dempsey (FIE) and Diarmuid
O'Donovan SC (Chairman). (Absent from photograph: Kevin Duffy (ICTU).
Information about the new
complaints procedures is available
from the Tribunal's Secretary,
John
Dowling,
at the Bar Council, Four
Courts (Phone: (01) 735689). It is
hoped that further details in relation
to the new Tribunal will be published
in next month's
Gazette.
Stress and Pressure in the Law Office
For the majority of lawyers, pressure
is a fact of life. The small victories
i.e. completing paper work, meeting
deadlines, answering 'phone calls,
meeting quotas for billable hours are
routine events rarely heroic and
certainly without merit or national
acclaim. The weight of responsibility
for clients' money, property, family
and even life and death add to the
strain. There is usually no place for
"team spirit" or camaraderie to
dispel the setbacks and celebrate the
glories, and the long days " in the
field" leave little time for personal
and family life. And in these
economic times, there is an
additional stress: the "players" may
be laid o ff from their " t eams"
altogether. So how do lawyers
withstand the pressure?
Dr.
Ellen Carni,
a clinical
psychologist in private practice in
Manhattan, specialising in stress
management and counselling for
lawyers, has written a note on the
matter in the Newsletter of the
General Practice section of the New
York Bar Association Fall/Winter
1991. She referred to several surveys
on the issue. According to a 1990
survey conducted by the American
Bar Association, lawyers of all types
and levels of practice are experiencing
fatigue, marital unhappiness and are
drinking alcohol in excess. Seventy-
one percent of respondents felt
"worn out" at the end of the
workday, up from 61 percent found
in a similar study conducted in 1984.
The rate of marital dissatisfaction
rose from 11 to 17 percent between
1984 and 1990, which is probably an
underestimation commonly found in
self-reports. In 1988, the Washington
State Bar Association surveyed job-
related impairments among lawyers,
reporting an 18 percent rate of
alcohol dependency.
In a 1989 survey of 34 managing
partners in Denver based firms, the
overwhelming majority of
respondents reported having worked
with a partner whose personal
problems (usually alcoholism or
marital difficulties) impaired his
performance. Among the
performance measures, billable hours
and the ability to withstand pressure
were most affected (79%), with
quality of work coming in third
(75%). Within the firm, teamwork
and morale suffered the most.
Dr. Carni stated that both research
and practical experience show that
nervousness, self-doubt, self-
condemnation and negative
judgment about one's situation lead
to lapses in attention and
concentration and inhibit the flow of
mental processes necessary to
generate viable and optimal
solutions. The result is that
performance falters and, if mental
stress is prolonged, the lawyer may
suffer symptoms such as headaches
and backaches, insomnia, anxiety,
depression and interpersonal conflict.
In contrast, top performance is
found among lawyers who take a
non-judgmental attitude towards
themselves and the challenges they
face. Moreover, lawyers who are able
to adopt a win-or-lose approach in
their law practice experience greater
clarity of mind and are able to deal
with challenges in realistic and
appropriate ways.
Are there other remedies? There are
no easy solutions.
Lawbrief
may
revisit this matter in a subsequent
Gazette.
Setting up an Accounts Department
in a Small Practice
Mr.
Frank Lanigan,
Solicitor, Carlow
conducted a seminar entitled
Setting
Up an Accounts Department in a
Small Practice
late last year for the
Institute of Legal Accountants of
Ireland. Extracts from Mr. Lanigan's
paper have been published in
Legal
Abacus,
January, 1992. Mr.
Lanigan's paper will be of
considerable interest to members of
the profession.
In his paper, Mr. Lanigan deals with
the issue of the establishment of an
accounts department in a small
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