A year after a 2024 survey of nearly 2000 practicing lawyers across Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales revealed that burnout is pushing many out of profession, there are concerns that nothing has changed.

The results of the study, conducted by the University of Melbourne, showed almost one in three lawyers across the states considered leaving their employer in 2025 and close to one in 10 expressed an intention to leave the profession entirely.

Curtin law school senior lecturer Christina Do who left the legal profession after just six months, attributes this burnout to two things: the structure and nature of the profession and the personalities that are attracted to law.

She said people wear their positions in law firms as a badge of honour, like how many hours they work and how many all-nighters they pull, which may exacerbate the problem: “It is sort of like a systemic issue over time.”

Previous lawyer and Dean of Edith Cowan University law school Krishna Prasad agreed.

He said the statistics do not shock him at all and that they are quite consistent. He believes the unrealistic expectations placed on junior lawyers plays one of the biggest roles in the profession’s burnout crisis.

“Law graduates who are climbing the ladders of the profession try very hard to establish themselves and impress senior management, which results in more work being given to them. It is a cycle, which leads to the burnout.

“It is like asking a child to perform at the same level as an adult and if it continues, the profession can take a reputational hit,” he said.

Curtin law school director of impact and engagement Katrina Williams said she has seen this burnout right across the profession from junior lawyers through to very senior lawyers. She said it affects every aspect of their lives.

“They find it harder to engage with their personal lives and they do less and less of the things that would help them be less burnt out because they’re feeling the inability to do it.” She said they almost become workaholics and then it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle that they have fallen into.

Having worked in the community sector and now teaching in the John Curtin Law Clinic, she said the structure of law itself adds to the stress. “I think it is also the nature of law. It is a very inherently stressful job. There are very significant consequences to mistakes, even minor mistakes, and the consequences are very public.”

She added that the problem may discourage students from joining the field.

“As a student, why would you choose to go into it?” she said. “Why would you choose to go into a profession where people are telling you from the time you are a student that it is really hard, difficult and depressing.

“I think it is a really negative thing for law students to hear.”

A UK study published in the journal Psychiatry Psychology and Law in 2024 addressed lawyer wellbeing, and highlighted that a renewed focus on job design is needed to investigate ways in which lawyers work can be better managed to reduce demands and increase resources.

Ms Do said that if demands do not decrease and attitudes do not shift, the consequences can be significant.

“I think if it is not addressed, there will be a natural drop off as a result and people will leave the profession.”

She said in order to improve the burnout and attrition rates; the profession can start valuing healthy boundaries rather than glorifying overwork.

“For those who do not want to work long hours and want to put boundaries in place, the profession needs to respect it and not see it as a bad thing,” she said.