Your wellbeing is not fixed. The extent to which you are thriving is something each of us has the ability to influence, which is why I’ve chosen to focus my career on enabling individuals and organisations to flourish. In my position as director of employee wellbeing, I am tasked with designing and implementing a custom wellbeing curriculum for everyone at Morgan Lewis. As part of that effort, I am in charge of a recently launched internal initiative we call ‘ML Well’.
We are striving to reinforce the intellectual, physical, emotional, and occupational health of everyone who works at our firm, with an underlying emphasis on engagement and community. Our programme will include regular educational programming focused on how to design lives of meaning and fulfilment, as well as how to confront challenges to wellbeing, such as substance misuse and mental illness.
All of this is a logical extension of some steps the firm has already taken to cultivate wellbeing, including becoming one of the first signatories to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) ‘Pledge on Lawyer Well-Being’. Additionally, we are collaborating with attorney mental health expert, Patrick Krill, to foster awareness and discussion around the disproportionate prevalence of substance misuse and mental health issues occurring in the profession.
Before joining Morgan Lewis, I studied Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and I incorporated many of the field’s pioneering concepts in my career as a management consultant, specifically in the area of leadership and talent development. I now have the opportunity to put that background to work in this first-ever director of employee wellbeing position at Morgan Lewis.
While Big Law does not always have a reputation for fostering the idea of ‘flourishing’, fortunately the management of my firm has enthusiastically embraced these ideas. In designing our efforts, we recognise the tension between wellbeing and the inherently stressful aspects of the legal profession. Still, while we acknowledge this fact, the science tells us there are things we can do as individuals, teams, and as an organisation to enable each other to better thrive. At the end of the day, we expect this effort will not only benefit our employees but also enhance our ability to deliver exceptional client service.
At Morgan Lewis we take a multi-dimensional approach to conceptualising the factors that affect wellbeing. I find it helpful to think of wellbeing like the weather. When you talk about weather, you are talking about several different factors – temperature, precipitation, wind, and so on. It is the same with wellbeing. When we talk about wellbeing, we are talking about multiple different factors that, taken together, describe a person’s level of thriving.
It is important to note that ML Well serves both the legal and professional staff at Morgan Lewis. This was a deliberate decision, as we recognise the importance of taking an inclusive approach to our efforts. Many (if not most) of the stressors our lawyers face also affect our professional staff.
Morgan Lewis leveraged the ABA’s wellbeing framework, which is adapted from the World Health Organization’s model, to create a custom multi-dimensional approach to conceptualising wellbeing in a way we feel will be palatable to all our employees – attorneys and professional staff alike.
The ML Well portal, located on our intranet, is comprised of cutting-edge resources, tools, research and news, all of which we have organised by the different wellbeing dimensions. So, let’s say you are interested finding out more about how to bolster your intellectual wellbeing, you are able to search for tools, programming, and resources related to that particular dimension.
Further, the platform is able to recognise the office, practice group, and department of each user and customises the content on each person’s homepage to ensure relevancy. For example, we have an office that hosts a monthly book club, an event that helps promote intellectual wellbeing. Employees who sit in that office will see that event in their portal, since it is relevant to them.
When it comes to the content and resources we share, we also recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing. What we aim to do is provide a variety of tools that employees can try out and adopt based on what works best for them as unique individuals.
Our overall objective is to weave wellbeing into the fabric of our culture. In addition to building out new and innovative programming, we will be targeting existing avenues of employee contact. For instance, Morgan Lewis has a robust pro bono scheme. Each year we hold a firm wide community impact week, during which we give specific focus to philanthropy and the connection to community wellbeing. Other examples include physical wellbeing events in local offices (step challenges, yoga, etc.), mindfulness meditation offerings, gratitude exercises, emotional intelligence trainings, and the integration of wellbeing into our various professional development events.
For other firms or in-house legal departments considering incorporating wellbeing into their strategic priorities, I offer you a few pieces of advice: something is better than nothing. This tension of wellbeing and the inherent stresses of the legal profession can be an intimidating one to grapple with. On the flip side, there’s a lot of opportunity. Don’t be afraid to start small. Secure the buy-in of your leaders and other key stakeholders. Finally, be inclusive of all employee groups and their unique needs.
Copyright 2019. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided as a general informational service and it should not be construed as imparting legal advice on any specific matter.