An emotionally vulnerable profession? Professional values and emotions within legal practice

ABSTRACT

Applying Fineman’s vulnerability theory, this paper will explore the role of emotions within the legal profession and the specific vulnerabilities that arise from their traditional and contemporary treatment within law. It will consider how the notion of professionalism in law has traditionally disregarded or excluded emotions as irrelevant or even dangerous in a manner which is philosophically and psychologically flawed as well as damaging to mental health and wellbeing. This approach has created longstanding unacknowledged vulnerabilities for the profession as a whole and individual practitioners. It will then explore how the shifting legal services landscape, and the resultant evolution of the profession, has led to a growing contemporary interest in the use of emotional competencies (often characterised as ‘soft skills’ or ‘emotional intelligence’). These are now increasingly exploited as tools to enhance profitability. However, this leads to a dichotomy as, despite their increasing utilisation, emotions are still not fully acknowledged or incorporated within law’s core professional values. This generates further individual and institutional vulnerabilities around mental health and wellbeing which require urgent attention to ensure the health of the contemporary profession. The paper concludes with suggestions for reforms to alleviate these vulnerabilities and promote greater future resilience within law.

KEYWORDS:

• Legal profession
• lawyers
• emotions
• values
• professionalism
• vulnerability
• wellbeing
• mental health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The term ‘lawyer’ and ‘lawyers’ is used in this paper to refer to legal professionals as a whole, across jurisdictions, and including any individuals whose work involves analysing and applying the law and/or offering legal services.

2 When discussing the portrayal of lawyers on television and in film, Salzmann and Dunwoody refer to their roles as “the archetypal hero, villain, or bit player” Victoria S Salzmann and Philip T Dunwoody, ‘Prime-Time Lies: Do Portrayals of Lawyers Influence How People Think About the Legal Profession’ (2005) 58 SMUL Review 411, 430. See also Michael Asimow, ‘When Lawyers Were Heroes’ (1995) 30 University of San Francisco Law Review 1131.

3 Nancy B Rapoport, ‘Dressed for Excess: How Hollywood Affects the Professional Behavior of Lawyers’ (2000) 14 Notre Dame Journal of Ethics & Public Policy 49.

4 S.A Bandes, ‘Feeling and Thinking Like a Lawyer: Cognition, Emotion, and the Practice and Progress of Law’ (2020) 89 Fordham Law Review 2427.

5 Participant quoted in E Jones, ‘The Role and Impact of Emotions Within Everyday Legal Practice’ (2021) 18 No Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice. See also Susan A Bandes, ‘Feeling and Thinking Like a Lawyer: Cognition, Emotion, and the Practice and Progress of Law’ (2020) 89 Fordham Law Review 2427; Robin Wellford Slocum, ‘An Inconvenient Truth: The Need to Educate Emotionally Competent Lawyers’ (2011) 45 Creighton Law Review 827.

6 Joy Kadowaki, ‘Maintaining Professionalism: Emotional Labor among Lawyers as Client Advisors’ (2015) 22(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 323; E Mertz, The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer” (Oxford University Press 2007).

7 Susan Douglas, ‘Incorporating Emotional Intelligence in Legal Education: A Theoretical Perspective’ (2015) 9(2) e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching 56; Susan A Bandes and Jeremy A Blumenthal, ‘Emotion and the Law’ (2012) 8 The Annual Review of Law and Social Science 161.

8 Lisa Flower, Interactional Justice. The Role of Emotions in the Performance of Loyalty (Routledge 2020), 3.

9 Julie Paquin, ‘From Partners to Team Leaders: Tracking Changes in the Canadian Legal Profession’ (2021) 28(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 351; Margaret Thornton, ‘Squeezing the Life Out of Lawyers: Legal Practice in the Market Embrace’ (2016) 25(4) Griffith Law Review 471; Hilary Sommerlad, ‘A Pit to Put Women In’: Professionalism, Work Intensification, Sexualisation and Work–Life Balance in the Legal Profession in England and Wales’ (2016) 23(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 61.

10 Nora Chlap and Rhonda Brown, ‘Relationships Between Workplace Characteristics, Psychological Stress, Affective Distress, Burnout and Empathy in Lawyers’ (2022) 29(2) International Journal of the Legal Profession, 159, 172; Jones (n 5).

11 Kristin B. Gerdy, ‘Clients, Empathy, and Compassion: Introducing First-Year Students to the “Heart” of Lawyering’ (2008) 87 Nebraska Law Review 1.

12 See, for example, Richard Susskind, Tomorrow’s Lawyers. An Introduction to your Future (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2017).

13 Michael Legg, ‘New Skills for New Lawyers: Responding to Technology and Practice Development’ (2018) The Future of Australian Legal Education (Thomson Reuters 2018), UNSW Law Research (18–51).

14 Susan Swaim Daicoff, ‘Lawyer, Form Thyself: Professional Identity Formation Strategies in Legal Education Through Soft Skills Training, Ethics, and Experiental Courses’ (2014) 27 Regent University Law Review 205; S Sangeetha Pazhani and T Shanmuga Priya, ‘Need for Soft Skills Development Towards Managerial Efficiency’ (2012) 2(11) International Journal of Management Research and Reviews 1895, 1895; Douglas (n 7).

15 See, for example, Kiser Randall, Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

16 Jones (n 5).

17 Martha A Fineman, ‘Equality, Autonomy and the Vulnerable Subject in Law and Politics’, in MA Fineman and A Grear (eds), Vulnerability. Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (Routledge 2016), 13.

18 Fineman (n 17) 15/16.

19 Fineman (n 17); Martha A Fineman, ‘The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition’ (2008) 20(1) Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 2.

20 R Dehaghani and D Newman, ‘We’re Vulnerable Too”: An (Alternative) Analysis of Vulnerability Within English Criminal Legal Aid and Police Custody’ (2017) 7(6) Oñati Socio-Legal Series [online] 1199, 1203.

21 Fineman (n 19) 1.

22 MA Fineman and A Grear, ‘Introduction – Vulnerability as Heuristic – An Invitation to Future Exploration’, in MA Fineman and A Grear (eds), Vulnerability. Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (Routledge 2013).

23 Frank Rudy Cooper, ‘Always Already Suspect: Revising Vulnerability Theory’ 93 (2014) North Carolina Law Review 1339, 1356.

24 Dehaghani and Newman (n 20).

25 Jane Ching, Graham Ferris and Jane Jarman, ‘To Act is to be Committed, and to be Committed is to be in Danger’: the Vulnerability of the Young Lawyer in Ethical Crisis’ (2022) Legal Ethics.

26 Martha A Fineman, ‘Introducing Vulnerability’ in Martha A Fineman and Jonathan W Fineman (eds), Vulnerability and the Legal Organisation of Work (Routledge 2017), 4; Martha A Fineman, ‘Vulnerability and Inevitable Inequality’ (2017) 4(3) Oslo Law Review 133.

27 MA Fineman, ‘The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition’, in MA Fineman (ed.), Transcending the Boundaries of Law (Routledge-Cavendish 2010), 187.

28 MA Fineman, ‘Vulnerability and Social Justice’ (2019) 53(2) Valparaiso University Law Review 341, 362.

29 Fineman (n 28) 363.

30 Fineman (n 27), 146.

31 Cooper (n 23) 1365 onwards.

32 Nina A Kohn, ‘Vulnerability Theory and the Role of Government’ (2014) 26 Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 1, 14.

33 Kohn (n 32) 15.

34 Kohn (n 32) 22–23.

35 Benjamin P Davis and Eric Aldieri, ‘Precarity and Resistance: A Critique of Martha Fineman’s Vulnerability Theory’ (2021) 36 Hypatia 321.

36 Richard Collier, ‘Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: Reflections on Recent Developments (Or, What Do We Talk About, When We Talk About Wellbeing?)’ (2016) 23(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 41.

37 Fineman (n 26) 147.

38 John Armour and Mari Sako, ‘AI-Enabled Business Models in Legal Services: From Traditional Law Firms To Next-Generation Law Companies?’ (2020) 7(1) Journal of Professions and Organization 27.

39 TA Maroney, ‘Law and Emotion: A Proposed Taxonomy of an Emerging Field’ (2006) 30 Law and Human Behavior’ 119.

40 S Bergman Blix and A Wettergren, Professional Emotions in Court. A Sociological Perspective (Routledge 2018); L Flower, ‘The (Un)Emotional Law Student’ (2014) 6(3) International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion 295.

41 E Jones, Emotions in the Law School: Transforming Legal education Through the Passions (Routledge 2019); Bergma Blix and Wettergren (n 40); Flower (n 40).

42 C James, ‘Seeing Things as we are-Emotional Intelligence and Clinical Legal Education’ (2005) 8 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 123, 129.

43 R Grossi, ‘Understanding Law and Emotion’ (2015) 7(1) Emotion Review 55; Kathryn Abrams and Hila Keren, ‘Who’s Afraid of Law and the Emotions’ (2009) 94 Minnesota Law Review 1997; TA Maroney, ‘Law and Emotion: A Proposed Taxonomy of an Emerging Field’ (2006) 13(2) Law and Human Behaviour 119.

44 J Conoghan, Law and Gender (Oxford University Press 2013).

45 J Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Hackett Publishing Company 1992).

46 A Grear, ‘Vulnerability, Advanced Global Capitalism and Co-Symptomatic Injustice: Locating the Vulnerable Subject’, in MA Fineman and A Grear (eds), Vulnerability. Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (Routledge 2016), 44.

47 Grear (n 46).

48 Fineman (n 18). See also the critique of the liberal subject in D Bedford, ‘Introduction. Vulnerability Refigured’, in D Bedford and J Herring (eds), Embracing Vulnerability. The Challenges and Implications for Law (Routledge 2020).

49 Grear (n 46).

50 See, for example, N Naffine, Law and the Sexes Explorations in Feminist Jurisprudence (London, Allen & Unwin 1990).

51 Fineman (n 19 & 22).

52 Fineman (n 19).

53 Y Dezalay and B Garth, Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization (Routledge 2008) 1.

54 R Roiphe, ‘The Decline of Professionalism’ (2016) 29 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 649, 651.

55 Kadowaki (n 6).

56 See, for example, A Damasio, “Descartes” Error (Vintage 2006); M Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (Cambridge University Press 2001).

57 AP Harris and MM Schultz, ‘“A(nother) Critique of Pure Reason”: Toward Civic Virtue in Legal Education’ (1993) 45(6) Stanford Law Review, 1773, 1779.

58 Flower (n 8); Bergman Blix and Wettergren (n 40); Kadowaki (n 6); Patricia Weir, Liz Jones, Nicola Sheeran and Mark Kebbell, A Diary Study of Australian Lawyers Working with Traumatic Material (2022) 29(4) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 610–30.

59 AR Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (University of California Press 2003), 7; E Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (University of Edinburgh Science Research Centre 1956).

60 Hochschild (n 59) 34.

61 Hochschild (n 59).

62 Flower (n 8); C Westaby, ‘“Feeling Like a Sponge”: The Emotional Labour Produced by Solicitors in Their Interactions with Clients Seeking Asylum’ (2010) 17(2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 153; LC Harris, ‘The Emotional Labour of Barristers: An Exploration of Emotional Labour by Status Professionals’ (2002) 39(4) Journal of Management Studies 553.

63 See, for example, C James, ‘Towards Trauma-Informed Legal Practice: A Review’ (2020) 27(2) Psychiatry, Psychology & Law 275.

64 A Melville and K Laing, ‘I Just Drifted Into It’: Constraints Faced by Publicly Funded Family Lawyers’ (2007) 14(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 281, 286.

65 Helen Baillot, Sharon Cowan, and Vanessa E Munro, ‘Second-Hand Emotion? Exploring the Contagion and Impact of Trauma and Distress in the Asylum Law Context’ (2013) 40(4) Journal of Law and Society 509.

66 Baillot (n 65) 528–36.

67 Fineman (n 17).

68 JL Barkai and VO Fine, ‘Empathy Training for Lawyers and Law Students’ (1983) 13(3) Southwestern University Law Review 505, 506.

69 C Westaby and E Jones, ‘Empathy: An Essential Element of Legal Practice or “Never the Twain Shall Meet”?’ (2018) 25(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 107.

70 Jones (n 5).

71 See, for example, International Bar Association, Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: A Global Study (2021) <https://www.ibanet.org/Mental-wellbeing-in-the-legal-profession>; R Collier, ‘Love Law, Love Life: Neoliberalism, Wellbeing and Gender in the Legal Profession’ (2014) 17(2) Legal Ethics 202, 206–10.

72 I Campbell and S Charlesworth, ‘Salaried Lawyers and Billable Hours: A New Perspective from the Sociology of Work’ (2012) 19(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession.

73 Emma Jones, Emotions in the Law School: Transforming Legal Education through the Passions (Routledge 2019); C James, ‘Lawyers’ Wellbeing and Professional Legal Education’ (2008) 42(1) The Law Teacher 85.

74 James (n 73).

75 E Jones, N Graffin, R Samra and M Lucassen, Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Legal Profession (Bristol University Press 2020) Chapter 6.

76 Jones et al. (n 75) Chapter 1.

77 Collier (n 36); Jones et al. (n 75).

78 See n 14 and n 15.

79 C Blalock, ‘Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Legal Theory’ (2014) 77 Law & Contemporary Problems 71, 72, 83.

80 William Davies and Nicholas Gane, ‘Post-Neoliberalism? An Introduction’ (2021) 38(6) Theory, Culture & Society 38 3; Collier (n 71).

81 See (n 9).

82 D. Nicolson, ‘Calling, Character and Clinical Legal Education: A Cradle-To-Grave Approach to Inculcating a Love for Justice’ (2013) 16(1) Legal Ethics 36, 36.

83 C Dickens, Bleak House, Bradbury and Evans 1853, 385–6.

84 A Boon, L Duff and M Shiner, ‘Career Paths and Choices in a Highly Differentiated Profession: The Position of Newly Qualified Solicitors’ (2001) 64(4), The Modern Law Review 563; see also (n 8).

85 Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 c.10.

86 Legal Services Act 2007 c29.

87 S Caserta, ‘Digitalization of the Legal Field and the Future of Large Law Firms’ (2020) 9(2) Laws 14.

88 Joanna Bagust, ‘The Legal Profession and the Business of Law’ (2013) 35(1) The Sydney Law Review 27.

89 V Holmes, T Foley, S Tang and M Rowe, ‘Practising Professionalism: Observations from an Empirical Study of New Australian Lawyers’ (2012) 15(1) Legal Ethics 29; J Wallace and F Kay, ‘The Professionalism of Practising Law: A Comparison Across Work Contexts’ (2008) 29(8) Journal of Organizational Behavior 1021.

90 See, for example, Legal Education and Training Review, Setting Standards: The Future of Legal Services Education and Training Regulation in England and Wales (2013) <https://letr.org.uk/the-report/index.html> accessed 17 March 2023.

91 AT Kronman, The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession (Harvard University Press 1993).

92 For a useful discussion, see Paquin (n 9).

93 Francesca Bartlett and Monica Taylor ‘Pro Bono Lawyering: Personal Motives and Institutionalised Practice’ (2016) 19(2) Legal Ethics 260.

94 Nicolson (n 82); Kronman (n 91).

95 Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (Bloomsbury 1996); Kiser (n 14); P Salovey and JD Mayer ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (1990) 9(3) Imagination, Cognition and Personality 185.

96 Legal Education and Training Review n.90, para 4.83 and table 4.3.

97 A Aldridge, ‘City law firm brings in emotional intelligence training to ward off threat from robots’, Legal Cheek <http://www.legalcheek.com/2016/05/city-law-firm-brings-in-emotional-intelligence-training-to-ward-off-threat-from-robots/> accessed 17 March 2023.

98 American Bar Association, ‘How emotional intelligence makes you a better lawyer’, American Bar Association, 2017 <https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2017/october-2017/how-successful-lawyers-use-emotional-intelligence-to-their-advan/> accessed 17 March 2023.

99 Polly Botsford, ‘Why lawyers need to be taught more about emotional intelligence’, International Bar Association (2017) <https://www.ibanet.org/article/bc769d24-a76e-447a-aff1-fd92903bbd60> accessed 17 March 2023.

100 Paula Young and Penny Owston, ‘Emotional Intelligence: The Essential Tool for Business Success’, The Law Society of England and Wales (2016) <https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/in-house/emotional-intelligence-the-essential-tool-for-business-success> accessed 17 March 2023.

101 K Lynch, ‘Carelessness: A Hidden Doxa in Higher Education’ (2010) 9(1) Arts & Humanities in Higher Education 54.

102 AM D’Aoust, ‘Ties that Bind? Engaging Emotions, Governmentality and Neoliberalism: Introduction to the Special Issue’ (2014) 28(3) Global Society 267, 269.

103 C Freeman, ‘Feeling Neoliberal’ (2020) 1(1) Feminist Anthropology 71, 71.

104 PJ Burke, ‘Re/Imagining Higher Education Pedagogies: Gender, Emotion and Difference’ (2015) 20(4) Teaching in Higher Education 388. K Lynch, ‘Neoliberalism and Marketisation: The Implications for Higher Education’ (2006) 5(1) European Education Research Journal 1.

105 D’Aoust (n 102) 274.

106 NJ Kiersey ‘“Retail Therapy in the Dragon’s Den”: Neoliberalism and Affective Labour in the Popular Culture of Ireland’s Financial Crisis’ (2014) 28(3) Global Society 356, 358; see also Otto Penz and Birgit Sauer, Governing Affects: Neoliberalism, Neo-Bureaucracies, and Service Work (Routledge, 2019).

107 E Cabanas, ‘Rekindling Individualism, Consuming Emotions: Constructing “Psytizens” in the Age of Happiness’ (2016) 22(3) Culture & Psychology 467.

108 S Binkley, ‘The Emotional Logic of Neoliberalism: Reflexivity and Instrumentality in Three Theoretical Traditions’ in S Binkley, D Cahill, M Cooper, M Konings, D Primrose (eds), The Sage Handbook of Neoliberalism (Sage, 2018).

109 American Bar Association (2017), How emotional intelligence makes you a better lawyer <https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2017/october-2017/how-successful-lawyers-use-emotional-intelligence-to-their-advan/> accessed 1 December 2023.

110 See, for example, LS Krieger and KM Sheldon, ‘What Makes Lawyers Happy?: A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success’ (2015) 82 The George Washington Law Review 554.

111 Collier (n 35); P Baron, ‘Althusser’s Mirror: Lawyer Distress and the Process of Interpellation’ (2015) 24(2) Griffith Law Review 157.

112 Fineman (n 17); Fineman (n 19).

113 Cabanas (n 107) 471–72.

114 Julia Evetts, ‘Professionalism: Value and Ideology’ (2013) 61(5–6) Current Sociology 778, 787.

115 Abrams and Keren (n 43).

116 SA Bandes, ‘Introduction’ in SA Bandes (ed.), The Passions of Law (New York University Press 1999).

117 Bergman Blix and Wettergren (n 44).

118 ML Matteson, L Anderson and C Boyden, ‘“Soft Skills”: A Phrase in Search of Meaning’ (2016) 16(1) Libraries and the Academy 71.

119 AK Touloumakos, ‘Expanded Yet Restricted: A Mini Review of the Soft Skills Literature’ (2020) 11 Frontiers in psychology 2207.

120 BR Palmer, ‘Models and Measures of Emotional Intelligence’ (2007) 14(2) Organisations and People 3–10; KV Petrides and A Furnham, ‘Trait Emotional Intelligence: Psychometric Investigation with Reference to Established Trait Taxonomies’ (2001) 15(6) European Journal of Personality 425.

121 E Jones, ‘Affective or Defective? Exploring the LETR’s Characterisation of Affect and its Translation Into Practice’ (2018) 52(4) The Law Teacher 478.

122 Hochschild (n 59).

123 C Veldstra, ‘Bad Feeling at Work: Emotional Labour, Precarity, and the Affective Economy’ (2020) 34(1) Cultural Studies 1–24; C Westaby and A Subyran, ‘Emotional Labour in the Legal Profession’, in C Westaby and A Subryan (eds), Emotional Labour in Criminal Justice and Criminology (Routledge 2020) 34–53; H Sommerlad, ‘“A Pit to Put Women in”: Professionalism, Work Intensification, Sexualisation and Work–Life Balance in the Legal Profession in England and Wales’ (2016) 23(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 61–82.

124 International Bar Association, Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: A Global Study, 2021 <https://www.ibanet.org/document?id=IBA-report-Mental-Wellbeing-in-the-Legal-Profession-A-Global-Study> accessed 29 November 2023; AA Grandey and GM Sayre, ‘Emotional Labor: Regulating Emotions for a Wage’ (2019) 28(2) Current Directions in Psychological Science 131; C Westaby ‘“Feeling Like a Sponge”: The Emotional Labour Produced by Solicitors in Their Interactions with Clients Seeking Asylum’ (2010) 17(2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 153.

125 Kadowaki (n 6).

126 Hochshchild (n 59).

127 Grandey and Sayre (n 119); for a summary of the literature and different perspective see D Zapf, M Kern, F Tschan, D Holman and NK Semmer, ‘Emotion Work: A Work Psychology Perspective’ (2021) 8 Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 139.

128 Fineman (n 27); Fineman (n 28).

129 E Wald and RG Pearce, ‘Being Good Lawyers: A Relational Approach to Law Practice’ (2016) 29 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 601.

130 JK Wright, Lawyers as Changemakers: The Global Integrative Law Movement (Chicago, ABA Book Publishing 2016).

131 Helgi Maki, Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum and J. Kim Wright, Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Lawyer Resilience and Healing (American Bar Association 2023).

132 Jones (n 41); SS Daicoff, Expanding the Lawyer’s Toolkit of Skills and Competencies: Synthesizing Leadership, Professionalism, Emotional Intelligence, Conflict Resolution, and Comprehensive Law (2012) 52 Santa Clara Law Review 795.

133 See, for example, www.fitforlaw.org.uk.

134 CILEx Regulation, Chartered Legal Executive Handbook (2021) <https://cilexregulation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/General-CLE-Handbook.pdf> accessed 31 March 2023; see also Jones (n 119).

135 American Bar Association, 2023–2024 Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, Standard 303(b).

136 See, for example, Alessio Tesi, ‘A Dual Path Model of Work-Related Well-Being in Healthcare and Social Work Settings: The Interweaving Between Trait Emotional Intelligence, End-User Job Demands, Coworkers Related Job Resources, Burnout, and Work Engagement’ (2021) 12 Frontiers in Psychology 660035.

137 Holmes et al. (n 89).

138 Jones (n 5).

139 Kathleen Lynch, Care and Capitalism (John Wiley & Sons 2021).