NJLAP’s Outreach Hub contains presentation suggestions and samples to provide your law firm, or your specialty or county bar association with up-to-date information on lawyer resilience and how to achieve and maintain well-being. We are constantly updating this list of our available in-person or virtual presentations, sharable printed materials, and NJLAP-authored well-being articles for your newsletters.

If you see something of interest here, or would like to discuss a custom presentation, email us at [email protected] or call 800-246-5527.

We look forward to working with you!

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topic: Lawyer Well-Being

In This Together

Since 2016 the ABA and the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs has heightened focus on Lawyer Well-Being. Often neglected in general “wellness” programs, “well-being” represents not only mental and emotional health, but life satisfaction, purpose, and fulfillment.

This presentation explores some of the elements that boost well-being, including Zen and how to incorporate it, as well as a review of habits and practices recommended in the ABA activities workbook published in The Lawyer Well-Being Toolkit for Lawyers and Law Firms.

Topic – Difficult Clients

Dealing With Difficult Clients and Impossible Adversaries, the 2022 Edition

This seminar is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of the issues, causes and characteristics underlying the thinking, feeling and behavior patterns of difficult people – as well as simple strategies you can use to resolve issues quickly and easily before they escalate. This program also explores the complexity of human behavior – including a discussion on why people act in ways that are directly contrary to their self-interest.

Learn insights and general strategies for dealing with challenging personalities, including:

  • General techniques and strategies for managing difficult, challenging clients and impossible adversaries.
  • A review of the personality disorders, the traits, and characteristics of individuals who approach life with ascertain pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving.
  • How to recognize and handle clients or adversaries experiencing Major Mood Disorders, substance use disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), pathological anger, and anxiety based disorders
  • How to develop awareness of our self-defeating traits, thinking patterns, and behaviors which cause conflicts with our clients and adversaries.

topic: Compassion Fatigue

Compassion Fatigue in Law School & Beyond: The Lawyer As Caregiver

This one-hour program describes Compassion Fatigue and how it can afflict both law students and lawyers, as well as what it means to be a “caregiver.”

We’ll discuss:
What is Compassion Fatigue? (CF)
Symptoms & Warning Signs
Lawyers are Caregivers
Caregivers in Family Situations
Why Lawyers Suffer From CF
Possible Long-Range Consequences
Treatment & Ways to Mitigate
Where To Get Help

topic: Lawyer Well-Being

Setting Yourself Up for Success

Attorney well-being & its part in the duty to provide competent representation, especially in challenging times

This is NJLAP’s portion of a larger program, presented with the OAE, and covers:

 

  •  a brief history of the American Bar Association’s landmark study looking at substance abuse and mental health issues in the legal profession
  • discussion of four of the six areas covered in the ABA study
  • work environment
  • social, physical and mental health
  • recommendations for ways to cope with the pressures and anxiety of working in a firm,
  • especially since onset of Covid and isolation that ensued
  • changing the law firm culture of billable hours

Topic – Digital Dependence

Maintaining Equilibrium in the Digital Age: How to Harness Technology without Letting it Control You…

This presentation will explore tips and techniques for getting the most of technology while also protecting sacred personal time and maintaining healthy personal and professional boundaries. It will also provide theoretical underpinnings for why this important (especially for busy professionals) and how it can be accomplished.

The digital era has brought innumerable innovations and challenges that greatly impact our personal and professional lives. The gadgets we carry in our pockets have about 100,000 times the processing power of the computers that landed Apollo 11 on the Moon some fifty years ago. Technology can provide us real-time information about our mental and physical health—data on such wide range of factors as heart rate, sleep quality, blood oxygen and blood sugar levels, and many other factors. It connects us to friends, family, and colleagues around the world and enables real-time communication with any number of individuals, often irrespective of time zones or native languages. Personal banking, communications with our doctors, investment advisors or other professionals can all be accomplished without leaving the house, via the internet and mobile apps.We check our phones hundreds of times a day, often without even being conscious of doing it. Our technology aids and assists us—all while demanding a great deal of our time and attention. Learning how to balance our “Digital Dependence” ensures both good work outcomes and personal well-being.

topic: Retirement from Lawyering

Gearing Up to Wind Down: Retirement Reinvention

This program discusses four areas to consider when contemplating retirement from practice:
Emotional
Physical
Intellectual
Social

topic: Lawyer Neurodiversity

ADHD: Brain Chemistry, Medications, & Treatment Alternatives

This program reviews Attention Deficit Hyperacivity Disorder (ADHD) focusing on:

  • commonality in children and adults
  • necessity for accurate diagnosis
  • brain chemistry involved in ADHD including description of neurons, synapses, receptor sites, neurotransmitters, Dopamine and Norepinephrine
  • the most commonly prescribed medications & effects of medications on neural activity
  • dangers associated with medications including addiction and dependence
  • illicit use of Adderall among law students and lawyers
  • alternate treatment methods including counseling, organizational tips, self care; organizations that offer help
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