Wellness and Opening a Law Practice

There's a lot of talk about lawyer wellness— and there should be. The practice of law is a demanding profession. The emotional and psychological toll it takes on lawyers is well documented.  But I saw a Twitter thread today that would seem counterintutive to many wellness advocates because the author says the first thing the lawyer opening a practice needs to do about wellness is to see a CPA. I won't recap the author's entire message in this post, but she has a lot of important observations. You can read the thread by clicking on the graphic below. 

I've been teaching our free Opening Your Law Practice program in Oklahoma for many years. The next edition is May 1, 2018. Oklahoma lawyers and those awaiting Oklahoma Bar Exam results can see the schedule and get sign up information here. (Sorry, no online version yet. You have to show up in person.) We have breakfast and lunch provided by Oklahoma Attorney's Mutual Insurance Company and so advance registrations are strongly preferred. We will have an audience of new lawyers, but we also typically have quite a few veteran lawyers as well, either wanting a refresher or facing a career change. Once a retiring judge came up after the seminar and told me this was the most valuable seminar he had ever attended. As I beamed and thanked him, he continued, "There's no way I want to do all of that." He found employment with flexible hours instead, so maybe it was a great program for him.

But now I have something new to add to my program. For lawyer wellness, your health care professionals are important, but so is your CPA.

Who says Twitter isn't valuable?

Those who cannot attend our seminar can still take advance of our free OBA MAP Starting a Law Practice Directory of resources. You do not have to be an OBA member.