HPU recently joined over 200 legal employers from across the country in signing the ABA Well-Being Pledge to affirm its commitment to improving well-being in legal education and the legal profession. As the ABA Pledge website proclaims, ”Signatories are recognized as leaders in the national effort to support mental health and well-being in the legal profession. Participating in the Pledge is a visible way . . . to help break down the four barriers to obtaining mental health support: stigma, cost, awareness, and accessibility.”
Associate Dean Gantt co-authored an article that traces the history of the Pledge and outlines its seven commitments:
“The pledge traces its roots to the groundbreaking 2017 report of the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, The Path for Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. In September 2017, immediately following the ABA’s adoption of Resolution 105 in support of the report, the ABA formed the Working Group to Advance Well-Being in the Legal Profession to promote the report’s recommendations for legal employers and encourage their implementation.
“The working group identified commitments legal employers should make to implement the Report’s recommendations. These commitments formed the basis of the pledge’s seven-point framework adopted in 2018. This framework, repeated below, remains intact [today] except for minor revisions in 2022 to clarify that the pledge applies to everyone working or studying with a legal employer, including judges, lawyers, staff, and students:
- “Provide enhanced and robust education to everyone in the organization (including judges, lawyers, staff, and students) on topics related to well-being, mental health, and substance use disorders.
- Disrupt the status quo of drinking-based events: • Challenge the expectation that all events include alcohol; seek creative alternatives. • Ensure there are always appealing nonalcoholic alternatives when alcohol is served.
- Develop visible partnerships with outside resources committed to reducing substance use disorders and mental health distress in the legal community: health care insurers, lawyer assistance programs, EAPs, and experts in the field.
- Provide confidential access to addiction and mental health experts and resources, including free, in-house, self-assessment tools.
- Develop proactive policies and protocols to support assessment and treatment of substance use and mental health problems, including a defined back-to-work/school policy following treatment.
- Actively and consistently demonstrate that help-seeking and self-care are core cultural values, by regularly supporting programs to improve physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
- Highlight the adoption of this well-being framework to attract and retain the best individuals in the organization (including judges, lawyers, staff, and students).”
Advancing the Pledge came under the jurisdiction of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP), and Associate Dean Gantt currently chairs the CoLAP Committee that oversees the Pledge.
In commenting on HPU Law’s signing the Pledge, he shared, “Committing to the Pledge aligns perfectly with HPU Law’s overall mission to educate our students holistically in the knowledge, skills, and values they need to thrive as lawyer-leaders in the profession. Attending to personal well-being is critical to being able to thrive, and this principle will be something we discuss in our first-year Professional Formation course and throughout our curriculum. Plus, signing the Pledge underscores that HPU Law recognizes the importance of partnering with other legal organizations to develop innovative ways to help legal education and the profession improve the well-being of law students, lawyers, judges, and others working in the legal community.”