What is QOL?

A community of like-minded lawyers promoting wellness through speaking engagements, articles, and continuing legal education.

In 2018, the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation conducted an expansive study of 13,000 lawyers and judges who were licensed and employed in the U.S. Nearly 21% of study participants had problems with alcohol use, 28% of respondents said they had experienced depression, 19% experienced anxiety, and 23% said they had experienced work stress. Our profession deserves a brighter future than this.

OUR MISSION
Encourage and support a culture within the legal community that recognizes, accepts, and promotes quality of life objectives as important to personal and professional development.

• How can we cultivate authentic, comprehensive well-being in the legal community?
• What does well-being really look like?

The Oregon State Bar’s Quality of Life Committee envisions a radical world where lawyers actually take care of themselves and each other.

We envision a world where our colleagues thrive in every dimension of their lives — at work, in their emotional and social lives, in nutrition, exercise and recovery practice, in cognitive wellness, in authentic connection with others, and in their systems of meaning and purpose in life.

ENCOURAGE AWARENESS
We encourage awareness of and foster openness to personal well-being and professional choices that lawyers make to improve quality of life for ourselves and others.

IDENTIFY OBSTACLES
One of QOL’s objectives is to identify obstacles and problems that tend to limit the range of quality of life options available to the legal community and develop solutions to overcome those obstacles.

EDUCATION
We teach law students legal principles and provide continuing education for lawyers to maintain legal skills, but we fail to educate and promote lawyer’s well being. Physical and mental wellness, managing stress and setting boundaries, financial insight and planning, and professional civility, are all required to perform as competent professionals and QOL wants to help.

We teach law students how to study for the bar and lawyers how to write a contract or a brief, but we fail to educate lawyers about methods for improving quality of life, including pursuing physical and mental wellness, managing stress, volunteering, and improving personal financial skills and stability, QOL thinks this should change.

RESOURCES

• Information & Support
  We provide information and support relating to the quality of life to lawyers and law students who choose traditional and nontraditional career paths.
• Articles
  Our committee of well-being enthusiasts is available to draft articles related to quality of life issues for publication in the OSB Bulletin and other legal publications.
• Oregon Attorney Assistance Program (OAAP)
  If you or a lawyer you care for need help with well-being and stress, problem substance use, compulsive behaviors, career transitions, or challenging times, the Oregon Attorney Attorney Assistance program is just one phone call away: 503-226-1057. QOL is not affiliated with the OAAP program.