Message from the President, October 2026

A Stronger Bar Starts with Attorney Well-Being and Service to Our Community

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Greensboro Bar Association’s first member meeting of the year. We were fortunate to welcome Gray Wilson, who introduced us to an exciting North Carolina Bar Foundation civic-education initiative. Through ExploreNCCourts.org and related resources, the Foundation is helping North Carolina middle school students understand our state’s courts, the three branches of government, and the role of the judiciary through an interactive timeline, animated explainers, and classroom-ready lesson plans. Gray’s presentation was an inspiring reminder that lawyers can strengthen public confidence in the justice system by helping the next generation understand it.

As I shared at that meeting, one of my priorities this year is bringing attention to and resources for attorney mental health and well-being. An important part of that conversation is finding sustainable ways to bring pro bono service into our practices. Giving our time and skills to neighbors who need legal help can reconnect us with purpose, deepen our ties to the community, and add meaning to demanding professional lives.

At our next member meeting, Kim Bart Millikan, Senior Director of the NC Bar Foundation, and Allison Constance, Director of Pro Bono Programs at Legal Aid of NC,  will speak with us about this very subject: how pro bono engagement can support both our community and our own sense of well-being. I hope you will join us for a practical and candid discussion about making service a meaningful, manageable part of practice.

What New Research Tells Us

Continuing our discussion of attorney mental health and well-being, the ABA’s recently released nationwide study of lawyer mental health and burnout—the largest of its kind, drawing on responses from approximately 37,000 actively licensed lawyers—found that about one in five respondents met thresholds for moderate-to-extremely severe depression, anxiety, or stress. Nearly half screened positive for high burnout, more than two in five screened positive for risky alcohol use under standard clinical thresholds, and confidentiality and career concerns were among the most commonly cited barriers to seeking help. The findings underscore that distress is widespread, closely connected to occupational demands and work-family conflict, and deserving of profession-wide attention rather than silence.

Interestingly, the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s national report, Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: The Unique Challenges of Women Lawyers and a Path Forward, examined responses from 2,915 lawyers and found that women reported greater stress across many areas, including financial strain, mental wellness, sleep disruption, and family relationships. The report also describes how bias, workplace pressures, caregiving demands, and systemic barriers can compound these challenges, particularly across different demographic experiences. Its central message is that lasting improvement cannot rest solely on individual resilience; legal organizations must address workload, culture, confidentiality, leadership accountability, and the stigma associated with seeking support.

Making Room for Honest Conversation

These are challenges many lawyers experience, yet often too few feel comfortable discussing them. Our profession often rewards composure, self-reliance, and endurance; those strengths can serve us well, but they can also make it harder to acknowledge when we are struggling. I want the Greensboro Bar Association to create space—in our programs, our conversations, and our culture—for honest discussion without judgment. We should be a community where asking for help is treated as a sign of sound judgment, where colleagues know they are not alone, and where people can be connected promptly and confidentially with appropriate support.

For those who would like to read the full research, the nationwide study, When Demands Equal Distress: An Updated Understanding of Lawyer Mental Health and Well-being, is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032726013327, more on the study can be found at https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/research/lawyer-well-being/ , and the full ABA Commission on Women in the Profession report is also available online.

This is a critical issue for lawyers, and it is essential that we talk about it and connect people with the help they need. Next month, I will share more about the North Carolina Lawyer Assistance Program and the NC BarCARES program. In the meantime, if you need help—or if you are concerned about a colleague—please reach out to me. I will help connect you with available resources.

Abigail E. Peoples
President, Greensboro Bar Association
and the 24th Judicial District Bar