The pressures of law school are vast and complex. Students worry about CGPA, internships, job prospects, competitive environments, and managing co-curricular activities, among other concerns..Without support and guidance, struggling students can find the law school journey overwhelming and isolating.The recent tragedies in law universities across India have brought mental health concerns to the forefront, raising urgent questions about how institutions are addressing the needs of students on this front..Kanika Kadam is a Banking & Finance lawyer and Organisational Psychologist & Work Coach at Happy Mind Happy Lawyer. With dual qualifications in law and organisational behaviour, she works at the intersection of law and psychology as a consultant, coach and mentor, helping lawyers address work-related problems.In this interview with Bar & Bench's Hiranya Bhandarkar, Kadam speaks about mental health challenges faced by law students and faculty alike. She provides different approaches institutions can take to change the way they approach mental health..Edited excerpts follow..Hiranya Bhandarkar (HB): How does organisational culture in law firms affect well-being. Do these stressors begin in law school?.Kanika Kadam (KK): Organisational culture always affects the well-being of people. Specifically in law firms, lawyers deal with a lot of expectations like time pressure, work overload, the need to feel connected 24/7, billable hours and such. These are ingrained in some of the law firm cultures. It's visible in how leaders behave and communicate, policies, punishments, work-life balance, and how people interact with each other.While some of these things can definitely be worked on, others may not be under our control. If the organisational culture offers more social support from bosses and colleagues, good relationships at work, more freedom and autonomy, open communication, learning and growth opportunities, it positively affects the well-being of people.We cannot say whether these stressors begin in law school and carry forward to the jobs or whether the stress seen in working lawyers affects the stress levels for law students currently in law schools. More research will be required to see if there is any causal link. However, the two are connected, so we should be addressing both..HB: How can we change faculty attitudes like 'you knew what you signed up for' or 'law is tough' which are counterproductive to someone seeking help?.KK: There needs to be empathy amongst faculty generally. This attitude may not be as common as we think it is. Again, there is a need to have proper research to understand the faculty attitude as well.No one wants to take responsibility for it. If a student dies in one law school, we rush to blame the school and their teachers. The law school in question then tries to blame the students and parents. We are still so focused on this blame game that we haven't even begun to actually come together to address the problem of student suicide.We can try to implement things in an ad hoc manner, but unless we have some data to understand why these incidents are happening, we will be just shooting arrows in the dark hoping something will stick. A body like the Bar Council of India (BCI) should take action and spearhead legal well-being for the law students as well as for working lawyers.At the same time, the faculty also gets affected when students die by suicide. It is difficult for everyone involved. The guilt a teacher can feel that they were not able to help a student is real. Law schools need to have counsellors and therapists available to faculty as well to support them though these times..HB: In your experience, how does the ‘survival of the fittest’ mindset in law schools impact students' mental health?.KK: The survival of the fittest mindset assumes that you can become a good lawyer only if you are physically and mentally fit. I think this reduces the legal profession to being a good fit for only those who are ‘tough’ or have a ‘thick skin’. For students, this means that they need to keep going irrespective of how they are feeling or what is happening around them, and if they are not doing well, then it means that they are not good enough. There is no opportunity for students to slow down and address their concerns in a healthy way in this race. This leads to them not seeking the help they need and instead resorting to unhealthy habits to manage their stress..HB: Many law schools treat stress and overwork as “necessary” and a norm in the legal profession. What are the long-term effects of this belief on students and young lawyers?.KK: Not all stress is bad; some stress is good, as it forces you to take on challenges and find solutions. It’s when stress and overwork are glorified as a rite of passage into the legal profession that it becomes a problem. This creates unnecessary stress for students.Rather than looking forward to working as a legal professional, some students are scared that they will have to walk barefoot on hot coal to reach the other side. They are also scared to voice these issues because they are told this is normal and they will have to learn to deal with it. But no one asks how much stress or overwork is enough.When does it start becoming a problem? These nuances are not discussed at all. It’s not enough to add to the workload, create stress and let the students just deal with it and wait and see who survives. In addition to legal training, law schools are responsible for all-round professional development of students, including how to actively manage their stress and use good coping mechanisms..HB: How can institutions balance academic rigour with mental well-being, instead of forcing students to choose one over the other? .KK: The message that academics and mental well-being are not mutually exclusive, and that students can focus on both, needs to flow from the Vice -Chancellors and the management. It sounds so simple, but when you look at what makes students believe that academics is more important, you will find that it’s because of these subtle actions and words from people around them. If teachers look down upon students for scoring low marks, then students will believe that academics is the only thing that matters.We need to stop this from happening to us. This absolutely cannot be normalised and be left to turn into an epidemic. It’s imperative that we do something about it now. .HB: Many law schools have on-campus counsellors, yet students hesitate to seek help. Why do you think there’s a gap between access and actual utilisation of mental health resources?.KK: I think the outlook towards mental health has definitely changed over the past few years and people are more open to reach out for help. One reason could be that students may not have the trust that what they say will stay confidential or they may feel that the counsellor will not be able to help them with their problem. Or perhaps this ties in with the ‘survival of the fittest’ culture. Admitting that you are struggling is considered a sign that you’re not fit enough for the legal profession.Even when you have counsellors, students may not be willing to go for the fear that someone will find out and they will be considered weak. It's also possible that with the amount of workload (academics, internships, competitions etc), students are so busy that they feel that they don’t even have the time to pause and think about going to the counsellor..HB: What are some common mistakes institutions make when addressing mental health concerns?.KK: Assuming that they can’t do anything about it. I feel the biggest block is that institutions feel they need someone else to come and solve this problem, so they hire the counsellors and someone to take a mental well-being session. There is so much they can do themselves like conducting a study on what type of mental well-being problems students are facing and what are the causes. They can use that data to bring changes in their policies and culture. Communication is the key. Not a one-time ‘we value mental health’ e-mail, but regular communication from all professors and management encouraging students to open up and to actively listen without judgment to what students have to say.Students will not feel safe if they share something important and the faculty dismisses it, gossips about it or tells them that this is a part of life, and they just need to deal with it. When professors encourage this, this culture will flow into the students as well. A collaborative environment instead of a competitive one will be helpful in this regard..HB: What concrete steps should law schools take to integrate mental well-being into their policies, rather than treating it as an afterthought?.KK: Firstly, law schools need to make mental health of students an important metric of their success. This would include researching on the mental health struggles their students are facing and implement interventions basis that for both prevention and remedial actions. Secondly, law schools need to re-look at the cultures they are creating and build a community which can support each other in the law school journey whether it be in academics or the struggles that students may be facing without judgment. Instead of students competing with each other, law schools should encourage competition with other law schools..HB: Could you suggest mental health interventions that have worked in other high-pressure professions and could it be adapted for law schools?.KK: First and foremost, law schools need to focus on prevention. Cognitive behavioural and mindfulness interventions have been found to be effective in reducing depression and anxiety, particularly in higher education institutions. Law schools can have regular sessions (individual or group) on these topics for students, faculty and the entire administration. However, their impact also needs to be regularly assessed.It’s not enough to hire a company which provides app-based therapy and counselling sessions without checking whether students are able to book the sessions and what is the quality of these sessions..HB: If you could recommend one immediate change that law schools should implement today to improve student well-being, what would it be?.KK: I believe all law schools should undertake a full study on mental health of law students to fully understand their issues and the underlying root causes so that these can be addressed rather than just the symptoms of anxiety or depression or suicides that are visible. This can also be undertaken at a group level by a larger body like BCI for all law schools across India. In the meantime, something that law schools can implement immediately is having mental health counsellors available at a basic level and improving communication between the faculty and students on these issues as well on academic issues that students are facing. We can’t expect faculty members to become therapists for students or to award free marks or grades, but faculty members can be empathetic and listen when a student shares something with them.Faculty can look at having smaller assessments during the course in different forms rather than just an end-term exam so that students can get regular feedback throughout and can learn and improve through feedback. In some cases, students don’t even get the opportunity to see their corrected answer sheets and get to know just their marks or grades at the end, leaving them confused and lost about why they were marked the way they were..HB: Do you think the mental health struggles faced by students in law schools contribute to the larger burnout problem in the legal profession?.KK: Mental health struggles in law schools definitely have an effect on burnout in the legal profession. Burnout is chronic stress sustained over time and includes feelings of exhaustion, disengagement and sometimes professional inefficacy. If the stress cycle begins in law school itself and continues into the work life without addressing the underlying causes of stress and finding better ways to manage it, it can result in faster burnout..HB: How can alumni and legal professionals support law students in dealing with mental health challenges? Do peer-support groups help?.KK: The legal community has a big role to play, which means every lawyer is responsible for creating that community to support law students as well as each other. Alumni and legal professionals can offer mentorship to students to support them in dealing with the challenges they face in law school. However, the way we look at mentorship needs to change. Perhaps, law schools can have a system of assigning every student one alumni as a mentor on a voluntary basis.Mentorship is seen as a one-way exchange between a supreme person who will teach you how to become successful like them. But it is actually a two-way street where the mentor helps the mentee explore and identify what they would want to do and how, rather than imposing their way of work on the mentee. While the mentor can share their experience with the mentee about their work life, how the courts and industry works etc, the mentee is free to choose what they would like to do. It’s when things are not going so well that the mentee would need the most support from the mentor. If the mentor constantly tells the student how important CGPA is and they must do everything to maintain a high CGPA, I’m not so sure if this will have such a positive impact on the student. At the same time, the mentor also takes away a lot from the conversations they have with the mentee.Peer support groups are a good way to normalise conversations surrounding these topics and can make you feel less alone. They can be a place where you can freely share your worries without judgment and can also see what has helped other people facing the same problems as you. Even though peer support groups are helpful, they are not a solution to the mental health challenges faced by law students. Peers are not trained in dealing with serious mental health struggles and the success of these groups depends on whether the group members are able to maintain confidentiality and non-judgmental attitude..HB: Many law students, especially first-generation ones, struggle with impostor syndrome—feeling like they don’t belong or aren’t good enough despite their achievements. What strategies can law schools implement to help students navigate these feelings?.KK: I’m not sure if law schools can help with impostor syndrome other than creating a community with a safe space where people feel comfortable talking about these things and providing counsellors to help students address this. There are different reasons why students may feel they are impostors, so there may not be one strategy that works for everyone. Having said that, law students are high achievers and coming from schools where they were always considered to be successful, they may find it challenging or feel like an impostor when they meet people who seem better than them or have more achievements than them. They keep raising the upward comparison standard, making them feel like they don’t belong or aren’t good enough. This feeling can continue when you join the best of firms, even if you were in the top ranks in law school.The bar just keeps getting higher. You have to keep in mind that you need to focus on your own learning and growth and compare yourself to your younger self rather than other people.
