April 29: From Isolation to Connection: Supporting Mental Health in the Legal Profession

Title:
From Isolation to Connection: Supporting Mental Health in the Legal Profession 
Date/Time:
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, noon – 1:00 pm
Register Now For This Free Continuing Legal Education Webinar!
Speaker:
Jon Tynjala, Esq., Executive Director, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers
Description:
This course is designed to educate attorneys about the interplay between isolation and loneliness in legal practice and mental health difficulties including substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory identifying loneliness and isolation as an urgent public health challenge requiring immediate attention. This course examines the legal professional’s structures that support social connection—colleagues, firm co‑workers, organizations, and the profession—and shows how the structure, function, and quality of those connections work for or against attorney well‑being.
Notably, poor or insufficient social connection is associated with increased risk of anxiety, depression, substance use disorder, and suicide. This course will rely on studies showing that legal practice is the loneliest type of work, greatly increasing the risk to lawyers of suffering from these disorders. The statistics already put lawyers at much higher risk of problematic drinking, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and high levels of stress. Each of these factors will be discussed as it specifically relates to legal practice.
In addition, numerous traits of lawyers fuel isolation—including perfectionism, pessimism, skepticism, low resilience, secondary trauma, and low sociability. Each of these factors will be explored. The ethical impact of isolation will be addressed, as well as the relationship between impairment and attorney discipline. Finally, the program will outline the benefits of connection both professionally and personally, offering strategies to enhance workplace and personal connection, including consultation with LCL, EAPs, and other resources that assist attorneys and their staff with these complicated issues.
By:
Minnesota State Law Library Continuing Legal Education Programs

CLE Credit:

• Minnesota: One mental health/substance use CLE credit will be applied for.
• Other States: You may be able to self-apply for credit.

More Information And Registration