How staying present and connected is key to surviving legal burnout

Tran warned that without a genuine sense of enjoyment in the work – even amid its challenges – long-term career sustainability can quietly slip out of reach.

“It’s very relevant to our legal careers that we are able to enjoy the thing in and of itself, because that’s how you get longevity, personally in the industry,” she said.

Given the legal profession’s inherent demand for constant availability and being perpetually “on”, Tran explained, managing the pressure comes down to a simple but deliberate discipline of staying present in each moment where possible.

“We are working within the professional services, so you have to be there to serve your clients, which does mean, unfortunately to a large degree, being on 24/7,” she said.

“What I would say to that is, I’m not perfect at this, so I do stumble a lot. But what I try to do is to be present in every, each and every moment where I can.”

Another key shift in sustaining longevity in the legal profession, Tran shared, is reframing work not as separate from wellbeing, but as a place where value, energy, and renewal can be found.

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“The other component is, for me, it’s just using work as a place where I can also recharge. I’ve done that by actually going into the office five days a week,” she said.

“So I don’t work from home, or I work from home very infrequently, because I find that the social interactions with my team and my fellow partners are really rewarding, being able to connect with them and actually have that energy exchange, which you just don’t have when you’re working from home and working remotely.”

Acknowledging the cumulative toll of stress and pressure in the legal profession, she warned that without moments to pause, reflect and step back, lawyers risk long-term fatigue and disengagement.

“All the stresses and challenges within the profession wear you down over time. If you’re not able to have those moments to reflect and take a step back, which is incredibly important, you do miss those opportunities, and frankly, you get burnt out,” she said.

Likening burnout to a “snowball effect”, she stressed that its consequences extend beyond legal performance, eroding a lawyer’s ability to perform at work while also spilling into home life and impacting overall wellbeing.

“It’s like a snowball effect. Right. Once you start feeling really overly burdened and burnt out from your work, you can’t perform at your peak, right?” she said.

“So you’re not going to be as good a lawyer as you possibly could be. You won’t be as good a mentor if you’re a leader or as a colleague, and so it really just has those impacts.

“You also take your work into your home life, so you probably end up being sort of a lesson, pleasant person to be around, just generally.”

Tran stressed that, within the realities of legal practice, lawyers must stay anchored to the original motivations that brought them into the profession, using them as a grounding point to centre themselves during periods of pressure or fatigue.

“So it’s really important to always remember that you came into the profession, whatever your motivation is, but try to recall that and capture that and go back to that time and place as a way of centering yourself,” she said.