Occupational Burnout Explained: Why Legal Work Is High-Risk

Asked to name a high-stress job, a lot of people will jump to the obvious: surgeon, firefighter, lawyer. These are some of the pillar professions in our community on which people’s lives depend; there’s no surprise they’re so high-stakes. When day-to-day decisions can significantly impact someone else’s wellbeing, you can’t have an ‘off-day’. Outside of client responsibility, these jobs are often surrounded by a workplace culture that rewards overworking, where taking steps back to manage mental health can be seen as a sign of weakness.

Careers that carry such great responsibility take a serious toll on those they’re attached to. Over time, energy levels, empathy, and mental capacity can drain due to occupational burnout. This can have a serious impact on the quality of work, which not only puts workers at risk but also clients, teammates, and even loved ones at home. Let’s look at occupational burnout more closely and why legal professionals are at risk.

What Occupational Burnout Really Means

Burnout, as defined in the WHO ICD-11, is a workplace-specific syndrome arising from chronic, unmanaged stress. It presents through three core dimensions. Emotional exhaustion is characterised by a depletion of energy, irritability, and disrupted sleep. Depersonalisation or cynicism reflects emotional withdrawal from work, colleagues, or clients, often as a protective response. Reduced professional efficacy appears as declining confidence, impaired focus, and a sense of diminished accomplishment.

It is considered occupational because its causes and expressions are directly tied to the demands, structures, and pressures of the working environment, rather than personal life stressors.

Unlike short-term stress, which is uncomfortable but temporary and recoverable with rest, burnout develops cumulatively. It is the product of sustained overload, high demand, and insufficient recovery time: all pressures that are common in the legal profession, where heavy caseloads, client expectations, and long hours are routine. Because burnout develops gradually, many lawyers adapt to escalating pressure without recognising the toll. This slow desensitisation means the syndrome often becomes entrenched before it is noticed or addressed.

What Makes a Profession Particularly at Risk?

Certain professions are more vulnerable to burnout when the demands of the role consistently outstrip the individual’s capacity to recover. High-intensity environments, emotional labour, and limited autonomy all increase risk.

Common features of burnout-prone professions include:

• Chronic workload pressure and high output expectations
• Long or unpredictable hours with limited recovery time
• Exposure to distress, trauma or conflict as part of the role
• High stakes, high scrutiny, or fear of making mistakes
• Limited control over workload or deadlines
• Cultural norms that reward overwork and discourage help-seeking
• Client-facing roles requiring sustained emotional regulation

Healthcare, safeguarding, finance, and emergency services are all affected by this, where high-functioning burnout slowly erodes wellbeing. But we’re going to talk about one in particular: legal.

Law is a clear example of this risk profile. Legal professionals face heavy caseloads, tight deadlines, constant availability demands, and emotionally charged client interactions, all of which create chronic stress conditions linked to burnout.

Why Legal Work Is High-Risk for Burnout

Burnout is driven by a combination of structural, cultural and psychological pressures that accumulate over time. The work is high stakes, demanding, and often emotionally charged, and many lawyers operate with limited recovery or support. These conditions mirror the chronic stress patterns seen across other high-pressure industries, but the legal sector presents a particularly concentrated risk profile, reinforced by long hours, punctuated by client demanding expectations.

Let’s break down what’s happening in legal firms right now that contributes to the problem of burnout.

Workload and Hours

67% of lawyers report working over 40 hours per week, and nearly 25% work more than 51 hours per week.

Legal workloads are consistently heavy, with many lawyers working evenings and weekends to keep up. Billable-hour targets intensify pressure by prioritising volume over wellbeing. Chronic sleep deprivation is common, where sleep is often sacrificed to gain extra hours. Partial or full blown insomnia becomes a way of life.

Work Intensity and Pace

“You're not broken. But you are wounded. Your brain is telling you that it will not help you keep working this hard / ignoring the pain. Anything that will help improve your health and happiness level will help. If you keep just trying to tough it out without making improvements, your brain will make it harder and harder to do your work, and it will be a downward spiral until you have to quit or get fired.”

- Liquid72, Reddit

The pace of legal work is unrelenting: tight deadlines, high caseloads and constant competition shape daily experience. Younger lawyers tend to face the greatest intensity and the least control over their work. Continuous multitasking can lead to cognitive fatigue and limit opportunities for meaningful rest.

Cultural Expectations and Stigma

Overwork is widely normalised in the profession, where exhaustion is often interpreted as commitment. Many lawyers fear that raising concerns about stress will be perceived as a sign of weakness. Half avoid disclosing mental-health struggles due to stigma, despite high rates of distress across the sector.

Lack of Autonomy and Control

“I’m in house and the volume is miserable. I'm viewed as a bottleneck and a box checker. I spend a big chunk of my time swatting away status update requests. Doing even the bare minimum on a single contract is hard bc I get escalated on for “standing in the way of revenue.”

- Cat_With_The_Fur, Reddit

Lawyers often have limited control over deadlines, client crises or the direction of cases. In-house counsel may have unclear mandates or be required to take responsibility without corresponding authority, which can add to stress and role conflict.

Blurred Work–Life Boundaries

Remote work and digital access have deepened expectations of constant availability, where the absence of clear boundaries makes recovery time difficult. Studies show that emailing and professional smartphone use outside working hours are pervasive and blur the division between work and private life, which is detrimental to wellbeing and job satisfaction. Employees who routinely check emails after hours experience more pressure and less ability to recover, supporting the need for a "right to disconnect".

Emotional Labour and Moral Burden

“But there is reason lawyers are compensated well. Because all we do is deal with problems. It is a generally nasty environment. Especially when it is day-in day-out. I wish we could all be nicer to each other.”

- donatorio, Reddit

Much legal work involves managing conflict, distress, trauma, or risk on behalf of clients. Family, criminal, immigration and clinical negligence practitioners are particularly exposed to emotionally demanding material. In-house roles carry additional ethical and relational pressures that are rarely openly acknowledged.

Ineffective Leadership and Poor Management

“It can be hard for partners at your current firm to view you as anything other than the associate who is always available. In a new gig you have the chance to say, "I take 1.5 hours to workout every morning so am unlikely to respond to anything that is not an emergency during this time." It's a little easier to define yourself as an associate with a lot to offer, but who isn't necessarily going to respond to an email within 5 minutes whenever you send it.”

- VaultLawEditor, Reddit

Too few legal supervisors have received formal leadership training, despite their significant influence on workload, expectations, and psychological safety. Poor communication, limited recognition and inconsistent management practices can significantly heighten stress.

Post-Pandemic and Economic Pressures

Digital workplace technologies have created a "connectivity paradox" for lawyers: while they offer flexibility, they also elevate expectations for responsiveness outside working hours. This has led to "digital presenteeism," where lawyers feel pressure to be constantly connected, reinforcing ultralong working hours and making it harder to disconnect and recover.

“I’ve been a public interest lawyer for 11 years and still make teacher money. People think I make $150-300 when I actually make $75. I'd be less burned out talking to everyone about the worst thing that ever happened to them if I wasn’t constantly wondering when I’ll need to drive Uber to make ends meet.”

- andythefir, Reddit

Economic pressures can also contribute to burnout, where professionals struggle to meet the breadline during the cost-of-living crisis.

How Burnout Manifests in Lawyers

Burnout develops when the body’s stress response remains activated for long periods without adequate recovery. Biologically, the nervous system stays in a heightened “threat” state, keeping cortisol and adrenaline elevated for far longer than they are designed to be. Chemically, this disrupts sleep, mood regulation, concentration and digestion. Physically, chronic muscle tension, fatigue and pain accumulate as the body tries to compensate for ongoing overload. Psychologically, the brain shifts into a state of conservation, reducing motivation, emotional capacity, and cognitive clarity. Over time, these systems interact, producing the emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced efficacy recognised as occupational burnout.

The Organisational and Economic Cost

Professionals struggling with burnout are often left to their own devices, but firms and employers have a significant role in the solution, and resolving burnout is in their greater interest, too, far beyond the wellbeing of their workforce. Burnout among lawyers imposes high economic and organisational costs on law firms, including direct financial losses, reduced productivity, increased turnover, and negative impacts on firm culture and client service.

Here’s how burnout impacts firms.

Economic Costs

• Productivity losses: Burnout reduces focus, accuracy, and stamina, leading to absenteeism and presenteeism that directly cut into billable hours and revenue. According to a US review, disengagement and burnout are estimated to cost employers $3,999–$20,683 per employee per year, with a 1,000-person organisation losing over $5 million annually in reduced productivity and health impacts.
• Turnover and recruitment costs: Burnout accelerates resignations, forcing firms to spend significantly on recruitment, onboarding, and training. This disrupts workflow and destabilises client relationships.
• Long-term earnings impact: According to a review on the economic burden of burnout, it can permanently reduce lifetime earnings for affected lawyers. Evidence shows that these financial effects can extend to families, influencing spousal income and children’s educational outcomes.

Organisational Costs

• Decreased morale and engagement: High burnout levels diminish motivation and satisfaction, damaging firm culture and limiting effective collaboration.
• Increased absenteeism: Burnout is associated with higher absenteeism rates. Rising sick leave disrupts case management and raises operational costs as teams redistribute work or rely on temporary support.
• Reduced quality of service: Impaired cognitive function increases errors, client dissatisfaction and reputational risk, directly affecting business performance.
• Higher health-related costs: Burnout contributes to poorer mental and physical health, driving up healthcare costs, insurance claims and long-term sickness rates for employers.

Signs of Positive Change in the Industry

It’s undeniable that burnout is an industry standard, but it doesn’t have to be. The resolution lies in a team effort among employers, professional individuals, and legal bodies to bring burnout into the open and address the culture that has been built around it.

Across the legal sector, there are encouraging signs that wellbeing is becoming integral to professional practice. More firms are adopting structured frameworks, such as the Mindful Business Charter, which embeds healthier expectations around communication, availability, and autonomy. The question is though, do firms stick to it?

Evidence consistently shows that cultures which value professionalism, skill and humanity outperform those driven by constant availability. Specialist external support, including therapy, supervision, coaching, and organisational consultancy, is an easy route to sustaining healthy, high-performing teams. Working with a specialist in legal-specific mental health means having an expert in your corner to train your leadership, offer real support, and implement practices that prevent burnout from taking hold.

Talk to TCC if this sounds like the solution for you. We’re a team of mental health professionals with legal backgrounds, so we understand your world and the best ways to effect change.