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Not only do colleagues and clients provide friendship and support-from setting up remote playdates with our children during COVID-19 and supporting each other’s efforts to make an impact in our communities-but they also present learning opportunities. LS: Having a strong support network is one of them.

AR: What are some of the positives you leverage to create balance? While we can’t negate these factors all of the time, if we can also focus on the positive aspects of our work to achieve some balance, such as the satisfaction that comes from helping clients and the unique variety of matters we encounter, we can derive real meaning from the work that we do. Billing time in such a way creates unique stressors. Additionally, as lawyers in private practice, our financial success is essentially measured by how much time we put into our work. This feeling was especially compounded throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, at the height of which many of us found it difficult to find any release from our high-pressure, sometimes emotionally exhausting work. As lawyers, our work can feel intense and, at times, repetitive. From my perspective, there are a few factors that contribute to our feeling the ways I described. Understanding what causes these feelings can help us address them, seek support where we need to, and make important changes. While all this is true, I think it’s important to reflect on some of the reasons why lawyers can experience particular challenges that may at times leave us feeling overwrought, helpless, and even out of control. It’s always meant a lot to me, and a large part of my personal identity comes from my work. LS: I’m very proud of being a lawyer and have been since graduating from law school. AR: What are some of the well-being challenges lawyers confront in their daily work? Recently, Morgan Lewis Director of Employee Well-Being Adam Reiber and labor and employment partner Louise Skinner got together to discuss how and why their chosen line of work is important to them, the challenges and opportunities associated with the legal profession, and how it contributes to something greater than themselves.

MYTIME. TARGET.COM PROFESSIONAL

Although research suggests that employees who experience work as meaningful may enhance an organization’s bottom line, at Morgan Lewis, we believe meaningful work is an important target in its own right and contributes to the lasting well-being of our lawyers and professional staff. Truly meaningful work gives the sense that we are contributing to something greater than the self. For many of us, work is the barometer of our self-worth. We spend the vast majority of our adult lives working.

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