New ABA/Krill Strategies lawyer mental health study shows escalating burnout, risky alcohol use

September 09, 2026

New ABA/Krill Strategies lawyer mental health study shows escalating burnout, risky alcohol use

CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2026 - The American Bar Association, through its Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP), and Krill Strategies, a Pittsburgh-based legal advisory firm, released a new nationwide study on lawyer mental health and burnout that updates a 10-year old benchmark and reveals substantial distress, burnout and risky alcohol use within the legal sector.

The report presents data-driven findings from the largest study of lawyer mental health and well-being ever conducted. The study analyzed survey responses from a random sample of approximately 37,000 actively licensed lawyers drawn from 28 participating jurisdictions across all four U.S. Census Bureau regions and all nine U.S Census Bureau divisions represented within those regions.

Approximately one-fifth of lawyers in the current study meet thresholds for moderate-to-extremely severe symptoms on each subscale, indicating potentially clinically meaningful distress in a substantial portion of the profession:

• Depression: 21.7%
• Anxiety: 20.4%
• Stress: 18.9%

Burnout is pervasive, with nearly half of all lawyers (47.4%) screening positive for high burnout, including 15.6% meeting the threshold for severe burnout. This represents the first national estimate of burnout among lawyers using a scientifically validated self-report measure designed to capture work-related psychological and physical fatigue and exhaustion.

Risky alcohol use remains elevated, as 41.8% of lawyers screened positive for risky drinking under standard clinical thresholds and 26.3% screened positive on the higher cutoff used in the 2016 study to identify the higher-risk "hazardous drinking." While the prevalence of hazardous drinking is approximately 10 percentage points lower than in 2016, alcohol risk remains notably higher than typical adult or primary-care benchmarks.

Work-family conflict is also widespread: 35.9% of lawyers report high or very high conflict between their professional and personal lives.

"This study confirms that issues surrounding lawyer well-being continue to be a concern," ABA President Barbara J. Howard said. "This research helps us not only better understand the scope of the problems, but as importantly, aids us in better formulating strategies to address these problems. The ABA has been committed for years to understanding the mental health challenges that lawyers face and to the importance of self-care, mental health awareness and addressing professional stress or substance use in overcoming them. A mentally healthy lawyer is a better lawyer."

The ABA is devoted to the advancement of well-being in the legal profession and to assuring that every judge, lawyer and law student has access to support and assistance when confronting alcoholism, substance use disorders or mental health issues. The ABA wants to make sure all lawyers can recover, families are preserved and clients and other members of the public are protected. This mission is carried out by supporting the work of state and local Lawyer Assistance Programs (LAPs) as they provide hands-on services and support to those in need.

ABA CoLAP provides information and resources and has produced a pledge campaign calling upon legal employers (including the judiciary, law firms, law schools, corporate entities, government agencies and legal aid organizations) to: (a) recognize that substance use and mental health problems represent a significant challenge for the legal profession and acknowledge that more can and should be done to improve the health and well-being of those in the legal community (including judges, lawyers, staff and students); and (b) support and prioritize the pledge's seven-point framework for building a better future. Starting in 2018, the pledge currently has 257 signatories.

Other ABA sections such as the Commission on Women and Young Lawyers' Division have continuing programming and resources to address these problems. The Commission on Women released a report titled "Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: The Unique Challenges of Women Lawyers and a Path Forward," the first national study centered around the mental well-being of women lawyers.

The new study, titled "When Demands Equal Distress: An Updated Understanding of Lawyer Mental Health and Well-being," was authored by Patrick R. Krill, J.D., LLM., M.A. and Justin J. Anker, Ph.D., from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School. The data were weighted to reflect the profession's demographic composition using the ABA's 2024 National Lawyer Population Survey.

According to Krill, "The magnitude of this research provides us much greater visibility into the current state of lawyer mental health and well-being, along with reliable insights into the drivers of distress and burnout. It is obvious we face meaningful challenges and heightened risk, but the opportunities and desire for change that this study reveals appear equally robust. Especially now as the profession navigates the significant uncertainties and changes brought by the proliferation of AI, it is more important than ever for the well-being of lawyers to be a truly central priority."

As to who is most affected by these issues, the study finds patterns consistent with prior research: younger lawyers show the highest mental health risk. Men are more likely to experience depression, while women report higher rates of anxiety and stress. Those identifying as "other or preferring not to specify gender" show elevated risk across depression, anxiety and stress. Race/ethnicity differences related to mental health were largely nonsignificant once other factors were taken into account. White lawyers reported the highest likelihood of risky and hazardous drinking compared to other groups.

Despite elevated screening rates for hazardous and risky drinking, only 2.3% reported a current alcohol use disorder diagnosis. The study indicates a large gap between identified risk and self-reported diagnosis, which may reflect barriers to acknowledging alcohol-related problems or seeking help - potentially driven by concerns about licensure, a culture that normalizes heavy drinking and other obstacles to treatment.

There is clear consensus for change. Eighty-one percent of lawyers believe it is either very important (52.2%) or important (29%) for the legal profession to focus greater effort on reducing the incidence of mental health and substance use problems among lawyers; 15.7% believe it is somewhat important.

Other key findings:

• 20.5% reported increased alcohol or other drug use attributable to legal-profession stress.
• 57% reported observing mental health or substance use problems among colleagues "occasionally" or "regularly.
• 31% reported encountering a legal professional in the past 12 months whose well-being raised concerns about fitness to practice.
• 41.1% of lawyers reported that time in the legal profession has been detrimental to their mental health.
• 27% reported considering leaving the profession due to mental health, burnout or stress.
• Only 39.1% believed employers were doing enough to support lawyers' mental health and well-being.
• Only 25.3% believed the profession was doing enough.
• Extreme hours (71+ per week) are linked to dramatically higher risk of stress and burnout compared with a standard 40-hour week.
• Work-family conflict intensifies stress risk among those already experiencing high burnout. For lawyers in the top 10% of burnout, high work-family conflict adds 15.5 percentage points to stress risk - potentially leaving little opportunity to recover at home.
• Practices involving litigation show a consistent increase in burnout and moderate-or-higher depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. Litigators appear especially vulnerable when extreme hours are also present.
• Workplace environment differences are notable: Solo private practice and private firms are associated with higher predicted prevalence of distress and burnout, while in-house and judicial/academic roles show lower predicted prevalence.

The full study is published open access in the Journal of Affective Disorders and can be accessed here. Information on the report also can be found here.