The modern practice of law, particularly within the nation’s largest and most prestigious firms, is built upon a tacit but unyielding assumption: that the attorney’s professional obligations take precedence over all other life activities. The cultural narrative of “BigLaw” celebrates the singular pursuit of billable hours, client satisfaction, and institutional advancement as the apex of professional life. Against this backdrop, questions arise about the feasibility of maintaining genuine mental health when work/life balance is rendered an impossibility.
This article examines the extent to which good mental health is possible in the absence of work/life balance, focusing on the unique environment of BigLaw. Drawing upon psychological studies of motivation and wellbeing, as well as principles of Buddhist psychology, the analysis explores how the financial and reputational rewards of BigLaw can themselves become a double-edged sword: providing attorneys with powerful short-term incentives while eroding long-term stability and resilience.
I. BigLaw and the Structure of Work Precedence
A. The Institutional Imperative
From the moment an associate joins a large firm, the implicit message is clear: the firm comes first. Vacations, family commitments, and even basic self-care must yield to the demands of clients and senior partners. The hierarchical nature of these firms reinforces the belief that advancement requires full immersion, often at the expense of personal relationships, physical health, and spiritual development.
B. Billable Hours as Currency of Value
The billable hour is not merely an accounting mechanism; it is a cultural marker of worth. The relentless quantification of time transforms human attention into a commodity, rewarding constant availability and punishing disengagement. The attorney who invests time in self-care or family life risks being perceived as less committed, and thereby less valuable, within the firm’s ecosystem.
II. Psychological Rewards and the Narrowing of Motivation
A. The Allure of Prestige and Compensation
The rewards of BigLaw—salary, prestige, influence—are undeniably powerful. Social recognition and material abundance offer a compelling narrative of success, especially for individuals who have invested years of academic and professional sacrifice.
B. Reward Conditioning and Loss of Extrinsic Interest
Yet the very magnitude of these rewards often narrows the attorney’s motivational field. Activities once pursued for personal fulfillment—such as artistic expression, athletic engagement, or cultivation of close relationships—lose their appeal relative to the more immediate and potent gratification of professional achievement. Over time, the attorney may cease to pursue activities unrelated to law, creating an impoverished personal life defined primarily by professional identity.
C. The Erosion of Self-Care and Spiritual Life
Most concerning is the way this narrowing erodes self-care and spiritual cultivation. Exercise, mindfulness, and religious or contemplative practice may be dismissed as inefficient or unnecessary. The result is a subtle but pervasive disconnection from deeper sources of meaning, which research consistently associates with resilience and psychological health.
III. Buddhist Psychology: Attachment to Fleeting Rewards
A. The Cycle of Craving and Dissatisfaction
Buddhist psychology provides a unique lens through which to interpret these dynamics. According to Buddhist thought, suffering arises from tanha, or craving, which creates attachment to outcomes that are by nature impermanent. BigLaw’s rewards—bonuses, partnership offers, courtroom victories—are precisely such impermanent rewards.
B. Dependence on Flux
By tethering their sense of wellbeing to these transient markers of success, attorneys develop dependence on conditions that are in constant flux. Each reward, once achieved, fades quickly, leaving behind the anxiety of seeking the next accomplishment. This perpetuates a cycle of striving without satisfaction, a “hedonic treadmill” that undermines sustainable wellbeing.
C. Absence of Reliable Refuge
The reliable refuge, in Buddhist psychology, is not found in external accomplishments but in conscious awareness of present-moment experience. This refuge allows one to rest in life as it unfolds, independent of outcomes. Yet the BigLaw attorney, conditioned to equate value with external performance, often resists such non-goal-directed states, interpreting them as wasteful or unproductive.
IV. Mental Health Consequences in the Absence of Balance
A. Anxiety and the Fragility of Wellbeing
The overreliance on external achievements as a source of self-worth leaves attorneys in a state of persistent anxiety. Each day becomes a test of whether sufficient progress has been made, whether recognition has been secured, whether the elusive sense of control has been maintained.
B. Depression and Depletion
When the pace inevitably proves unsustainable, or when rewards fall short of expectations, the attorney experiences depletion. The neglect of activities that nurture intrinsic wellbeing—family connection, creative pursuits, contemplative practices—creates a void that no amount of professional achievement can fill. This void often manifests as depression, cynicism, or burnout.
C. The Alienation from Life Beyond Law
Perhaps most troubling is the alienation from life beyond professional practice. By dismissing activities outside of law as peripheral, attorneys risk losing touch with their capacity for joy, intimacy, and wonder—capacities essential to sustaining both mental health and meaningful human connection.
V. Reconceptualizing Balance as Integration
A. Beyond the Binary of Work vs. Life
The question, then, is not merely whether good mental health is possible without balance, but whether mental health can flourish when balance is systematically excluded. The evidence suggests that absent integration of professional life with practices of self-care and presence, sustainable mental health is unlikely.
B. Toward a Jurisprudence of Presence
Law, as a discipline, purports to serve justice and social order. Yet for attorneys to effectively embody these ideals, they must also cultivate the capacity to be present to their own lives. This requires intentional practices—mindfulness, community, contemplative reflection—that resist the gravitational pull of constant professional striving.
Conclusion
BigLaw offers extraordinary rewards—financial, social, and intellectual—but at profound psychological cost. The singular prioritization of professional activity narrows the attorney’s motivational world, fosters unhealthy attachment to fleeting rewards, and erodes the deeper sources of resilience found in self-care and spiritual cultivation. From both psychological and Buddhist perspectives, the conclusion is clear: good mental health is unlikely to be sustained in the absence of work/life balance.
The challenge for the profession is not simply to ask attorneys to “work less,” but to cultivate cultural and institutional structures that value presence, integration, and intrinsic connection to life itself. Only then can the practice of law be reconciled with the deeper human need for enduring wellbeing.
