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But as we reach Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, it’s time to confront an uncomfortable truth: the expectations placed on in-house lawyers today are unsustainable and lawyers are burning out.
We know some of the reasons for this include:
These factors compound daily, yet mental health is still a taboo topic in many legal teams. Lawyers have learned to cope in silence, but the cost of that silence is becoming too high to ignore.
So let’s talk about it. What does burnout look like in 2025? Why is it happening? And what can we do to address it?
(P.S. If you’re struggling right now, support is out there - LawCare is a good place to start.)
It’s not a new problem. For decades, the legal industry has run on a model of overwork.
Billable hours and career progression incentives in private practice have long encouraged lawyers to sacrifice well-being for performance. In-house, the pattern continues withlegal often finds itself last in line for headcount and budget, while expectations only grow.
Legal has become the department where business risk meets company reality. It’s the place where people want instant answers, but the work is complex, nuanced, and very human. And increasingly, fewer humans are doing that work.
In our State of In-house 2025 report, we asked legal leaders what they were grappling with. Burnout came up time and time again - not just as a personal risk, but as a systemic challenge for lean legal teams under pressure from every direction. Read the full report.
It’s easy to assume burnout is rare - something that happens to other people. But the data suggests otherwise:
Let that sink in. One in seven in-house legal professionals are currently burned out. And one in four have felt that way in the past 12 months.
These aren’t numbers we can afford to ignore.
When we surveyed the in-house legal community for The State of In-House 2025, burnout emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing legal teams this year.
This comes at a time when legal teams are under intense pressure to do more with less, embrace AI tools without training, and act as the conscience of the company on everything from risk to regulation to ethics.
Mental health support hasn’t kept pace with these new demands and too often, lawyers are left to suffer in silence.
One of the most powerful ways to shift the culture around mental health in law is simply to hear from the people driving change.
If you’re looking for voices who speak openly, bravely, and practically about the emotional reality of legal work, start here:
These aren’t just inspiring people - they’re shaping the future of the legal profession. Listening to them is a great place to start. Acting on what they say is even better.
No one should have to navigate this alone. If you’re feeling overwhelmed - or want to support someone who is - these resources can help:
You don’t have to be a mental health expert to make a difference. You just have to care - and be willing to talk.
We know the future of legal is changing fast, and that change can be thrilling and terrifying in equal measure.
But if we want a future where lawyers don’t just survive but thrive, mental health has to move up the agenda. That means honest conversations, better boundaries, more support, and leadership that sets the tone.
The good news? You don’t have to do it alone. Join the conversation with our community of in-house lawyers at juro.com/community.
Let’s build it together.
Katherine Bryant is a Content Marketing Specialist at Juro. She is an experienced legal content creator and writer, passionate about the intersection of law and history. Katherine has an MA in Modern British Studies from the University of Birmingham, and has been published in the History Workshop Journal.
Previously, she contributed as a content writer and editor for LawCareers.Net and Latin Lawyer before arriving at Juro, where she has written legal features, news, produced podcasts, and supported events (you may have met her at LegalGeek or our own Scaleup GC!).
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