Abstract
Surveys of students in the Australian National University’s Legal Workshop Professional Legal Education (PLE) programme showed that students began and ended a core course with low levels of psychological distress. In contrast to other studies, we found no evidence of elevated symptoms of depressive symptoms and no signs that this PLE programme may impair wellbeing. While small increases in average stress symptoms were observed, this was associated with a more positive course experience. Self-perceptions of professional identity and concurrent legal employment predicted lower distress, suggesting that wellbeing is enhanced by building meaningful connections between legal education and students’ wider identities.
Highlights
The quantitative study of psychological distress in Australian law students and lawyers has only been a recent endeavour, the findings to date have been consistent in their disheartening results
Surveys of students in the Australian National University’s Legal Workshop Professional Legal Education (PLE) program showed that students began and ended a core course with low levels of psychological distress
Despite this accumulating evidence about law students and lawyers, little is known about the psychological wellbeing of Professional Legal Education (PLE) students – the component of legal education that takes place in Australia after the completion of a four to five year undergraduate (LLB) or three-year graduate (JD) law degree in order to meet the prerequisite requirements in order to be admitted as a legal practitioner in any Australian jurisdiction.[3]
Summary
The quantitative study of psychological distress in Australian law students and lawyers has only been a recent endeavour, the findings to date have been consistent in their disheartening results. Similar findings about high levels of mental health concerns in lawyers would seem to imply that this trend continues unabated after law school and into the profession.[2] Despite this accumulating evidence about law students and lawyers, little is known about the psychological wellbeing of Professional Legal Education (PLE) students – the component of legal education that takes place in Australia after the completion of a four to five year undergraduate (LLB) or three-year graduate (JD) law degree in order to meet the prerequisite requirements in order to be admitted as a legal practitioner in any Australian jurisdiction.[3] one might be forgiven for assuming that the levels of psychological distress among PLE students would be just as high as LLB/JD students and lawyers, given the trajectory which begins in law school (pre-PLE) and continues into practice (postPLE). The PLE context can offer much to inform the broader research project on psychological wellbeing in legal education and practice, as well as the efforts to develop educational or practice environments which allow students and lawyers to thrive both in their study or practice as well as in their lives generally
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