Befriending Stress: A New Paradigm for Early-Career Litigation Attorneys
Early-career litigation attorneys stepping into the role of lead counsel for the first time experience significant stress, driven by high stakes, rigorous procedural demands, and the adversarial nature of trial work. Traditional approaches to managing stress often focus on minimization or avoidance, yet emerging research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that learning to “befriend” stress—reframing it as a necessary and even beneficial part of the trial process—can enhance performance and resilience. This article explores the psychological underpinnings of stress, its physiological manifestations, and practical strategies for young litigators to change their relationship with discomfort, ultimately enabling them to regulate their emotions,
