As lawyers, we are used to hearing that our services are costly. But there’s another cost which lawyers themselves must face-the personal and professional price of sharing our client’s troubles.

We care about people. We want them to come to us when they have a problem-their relationship has broken down, they’ve had a run-in with the law, their employee is sabotaging their company-the list is endless. Our four senior lawyers, collectively, have well over a hundred years’ experience. In that time, we’ve heard stories of addiction, tragedy, emotional loss and financial devastation. Our job, always, is to do what we can to make it better. It’s something we embrace.

Yet, according to our own Don Murray, QC, lawyers have to be alert to more than the possibility of burnout. As described in the January 17, 2014 edition of Lawyer’s Weekly, lawyers are at risk of compassion fatigue when they take to heart and mind their client’s pain and suffering. Don is the co-author of “Vicarious Traumatization: The Corrosive Consequences of Law Practice for Criminal Justice and Family Law Practitioners”. Unlike burnout, which leaves individuals exhausted mentally and physically, vicarious trauma can cause a lawyer to develop the same emotional symptoms their clients are experiencing.

During his criminal law practice of close to thirty years, Don has learned how to step back from the gruelling reality of his day-to-day work. He tells lawyers, “Do something different that gives you a sense of reward and accomplishment”. He also advocates physical activity which, he says, “relieves stress and tension, and it gives you a different focus”. Don regularly puts down his briefcase and puts on his figure skates; finding in the pressure of competitive skating relief from the pressures of practice.

As lawyers, we want to be perfect. But we’re not. In the long run, we can’t care for our clients if we haven’t looked after ourselves. This is more than just the latest self-help mantra. As Don’s work demonstrates, lawyers who don’t learn how to cope with the impact of their clients problems are at risk of becoming a problem for themselves, their profession-and the very clients they are trying to help.

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