{"id":133390,"date":"2025-09-16T09:08:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T17:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/16\/fear-loathing-and-perfectionism-in-biglaw\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T09:08:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T17:08:48","slug":"fear-loathing-and-perfectionism-in-biglaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/16\/fear-loathing-and-perfectionism-in-biglaw\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear, Loathing, And Perfectionism In Biglaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Please welcome Vivia Chen back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, \u201cThe Ex-Careerist,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unless your perception of law firm life is warped by\u00a0Suits<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0The Good Wife<\/a><\/em>, or\u00a0Ally McBeal<\/a><\/em>, no person would think of law as a fun, sexy profession. And you certainly don\u2019t go into it for its salubrious lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Biglaw in particular runs on insecurity. Not only do lawyers work insane hours, they\u2019re expected to perform with absolute precision. From day one, the message is clear: Miss a deadline (even if arbitrary) or make an error (however inconsequential), and your career is toast.<\/p>\n

The culture of extreme perfectionism breeds fear and anxiety, yet it remains the industry standard. The question is what this is doing to lawyers\u2019 mental state.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0offers some answers. According to a survey of 764 lawyers by Krill Strategies, JC Coaching & Consulting, Ambitionprofile, and NALP, the price is \u201cstress, depression, workaholism, resistance to feedback, and reduced engagement, motivation, and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among lawyers who scored high on the perfectionist scale, 50.6% showed elevated depression, compared to 7.1% in the low-perfectionism group. Perfectionist lawyers also tend to have shorter tenures at their firms: 5.3 years, compared to 8.4 years for low-perfectionists. And you guessed it: women reported higher levels of perfectionism and stress, suggesting that \u201cthat perfectionism may be a contributing factor to elevated turnover risk among women lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a troubling picture but is Biglaw aware of the problem? Does it care? I asked Patrick Krill, one of the authors of the study, those questions and more. Below is an edited version of our chat.<\/p>\n

A chicken and egg question: Do more neurotic people flock to brutal professions like Biglaw, or is it the profession that turns normal people into crazed perfectionists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably both. Historically, a high number of perfectionists go into the profession. It\u2019s a disposition that a lot of people come pre-packaged with. But there\u2019s also the work environment. It\u2019s firm-specific whether it\u2019s making someone\u2019s perfectionism worse.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it a given that Biglaw promotes an unrealistic level of perfectionism and that only the truly exceptional make it to the top?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to distinguish between perfectionism and\u00a0maladaptive perfectionism<\/a>, which entails setting unrealistically high standards. Professional athletes have high standards but they don\u2019t internalize failure like lawyers do. Maladaptive perfectionists have a very pronounced fear of failure and excessive self-criticism; they beat themselves up.<\/p>\n

Even though maladaptive perfectionism has long been understood to be bad for people\u2019s health, it\u2019s almost a badge of honor for lawyers. What surprised me in the study is how clear it was that this trait is undermining lawyer\u2019s success, and yet they\u2019re not aware of it.<\/p>\n

If you had to name one culprit that\u2019s responsible for this miserable state of affairs, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fear. At some firms, fear permeates from the top down. It can be a management style where fear is the primary motivator. Fear is jet fuel for maladaptive perfectionism.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read more at The Ex-Careerist\u2026.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Vivia Chen\u00a0writes\u00a0\u201cThe Ex-Careerist\u201d<\/a>\u00a0column on Substack where she unleashes her unvarnished views about the intersection of work, life, and politics. A former lawyer, she was an opinion columnist at Bloomberg Law and The American Lawyer. Subscribe to her Substack by clicking here:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The post Fear, Loathing, And Perfectionism In Biglaw<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Please welcome Vivia Chen back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, \u201cThe Ex-Careerist,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unless your perception of law firm life is warped by\u00a0Suits<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0The Good Wife<\/a><\/em>, or\u00a0Ally McBeal<\/a><\/em>, no person would think of law as a fun, sexy profession. And you certainly don\u2019t go into it for its salubrious lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Biglaw in particular runs on insecurity. Not only do lawyers work insane hours, they\u2019re expected to perform with absolute precision. From day one, the message is clear: Miss a deadline (even if arbitrary) or make an error (however inconsequential), and your career is toast.<\/p>\n

The culture of extreme perfectionism breeds fear and anxiety, yet it remains the industry standard. The question is what this is doing to lawyers\u2019 mental state.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0offers some answers. According to a survey of 764 lawyers by Krill Strategies, JC Coaching & Consulting, Ambitionprofile, and NALP, the price is \u201cstress, depression, workaholism, resistance to feedback, and reduced engagement, motivation, and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among lawyers who scored high on the perfectionist scale, 50.6% showed elevated depression, compared to 7.1% in the low-perfectionism group. Perfectionist lawyers also tend to have shorter tenures at their firms: 5.3 years, compared to 8.4 years for low-perfectionists. And you guessed it: women reported higher levels of perfectionism and stress, suggesting that \u201cthat perfectionism may be a contributing factor to elevated turnover risk among women lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a troubling picture but is Biglaw aware of the problem? Does it care? I asked Patrick Krill, one of the authors of the study, those questions and more. Below is an edited version of our chat.<\/p>\n

A chicken and egg question: Do more neurotic people flock to brutal professions like Biglaw, or is it the profession that turns normal people into crazed perfectionists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably both. Historically, a high number of perfectionists go into the profession. It\u2019s a disposition that a lot of people come pre-packaged with. But there\u2019s also the work environment. It\u2019s firm-specific whether it\u2019s making someone\u2019s perfectionism worse.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it a given that Biglaw promotes an unrealistic level of perfectionism and that only the truly exceptional make it to the top?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to distinguish between perfectionism and\u00a0maladaptive perfectionism<\/a>, which entails setting unrealistically high standards. Professional athletes have high standards but they don\u2019t internalize failure like lawyers do. Maladaptive perfectionists have a very pronounced fear of failure and excessive self-criticism; they beat themselves up.<\/p>\n

Even though maladaptive perfectionism has long been understood to be bad for people\u2019s health, it\u2019s almost a badge of honor for lawyers. What surprised me in the study is how clear it was that this trait is undermining lawyer\u2019s success, and yet they\u2019re not aware of it.<\/p>\n

If you had to name one culprit that\u2019s responsible for this miserable state of affairs, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fear. At some firms, fear permeates from the top down. It can be a management style where fear is the primary motivator. Fear is jet fuel for maladaptive perfectionism.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read more at The Ex-Careerist\u2026.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Vivia Chen\u00a0writes\u00a0\u201cThe Ex-Careerist\u201d<\/a>\u00a0column on Substack where she unleashes her unvarnished views about the intersection of work, life, and politics. A former lawyer, she was an opinion columnist at Bloomberg Law and The American Lawyer. Subscribe to her Substack by clicking here:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The post Fear, Loathing, And Perfectionism In Biglaw<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Please welcome Vivia Chen back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, \u201cThe Ex-Careerist,\u201d\u00a0here. Unless your perception of law firm life is warped by\u00a0Suits,\u00a0The Good Wife, or\u00a0Ally McBeal, no person would think of law as a fun, sexy profession. And you certainly don\u2019t go into it for its salubrious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Vivia-Chen-Ex-Careerist-l1a1Vf.png?fit=286%2C72&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}