Article. Abstract:
The cognitive dominance of legal education is a product of the narrow imagination of law schools and the conservative expectations of the corporatized profession. One consequence, it can be argued, is the failure of law schools to educate students for the actual work demands they will experience in practice. Law schools might defend by saying their role is to teach doctrinal law subjects, and PLT providers train graduates for legal practice. The problem is that until recently, neither institution has responded to research confirming the poor mental health status of many law students and lawyers. In recent years the Wellness Network for Law, in association with the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation, has initiated a series of conferences and publications designed to improve awareness and promote strategies for improving the mental health of law students and lawyers. This growing discourse has highlighted the importance of emotions, among other things, and the role awareness of emotions could play in legal education and PLT, as well as in legal practice.
This paper connects the research on emotions with recent research on habits. It proposes that existing models of emotional intelligence have limited worth because they don’t inform ways to change unproductive or destructive responses to difficult and stressful situations. Law students for example may develop habitual responses to stressful situations that are unhelpful, such as denial, procrastination or self-medication, and develop destructive attitudes associated with depression, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and a shift from core intrinsic motivating values to extrinsic values associated with poor mental health. The paper concludes with strategies for promoting positive habits for law students that may not only build resilience but enhance performance in a difficult profession.