Dr. Larry Richard is recognized as a leading expert on the psychology of lawyer behavior and the use of behavioral science to improve performance in law firms and legal departments. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he practiced as a litigator for 10 years before earning his PhD in psychology from Temple University. Since then, he has gathered and analyzed personality data on thousands of lawyers and consulted with hundreds of law firms and corporate legal departments on resilience, leadership development, change management, and lawyer well-being. He is the founder of LawyerBrain and co-author, with Dr. D'Arcy Lyness, of Thin Skinned: Why Lawyers Are So Low in Resilience and the New Science That Can Help.
WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS EPISODE ABOUT BUILDING RESILIENCE IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION
Lawyers are trained to think critically about what could go wrong, and that mindset serves them well in practice. The challenge is that it does not always switch off when the immediate problem is solved or the workday ends. When pressure becomes constant, that way of thinking can make it harder to recover from setbacks and get back to a steadier place.
Dr. Larry Richard has spent decades studying why resilience can be such a challenge for lawyers. His research shows that resilience is largely learned, which also means it can be strengthened. Understanding that opens the door to looking more closely at the habits and responses that wear resilience down and what lawyers can do differently over time.
In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge podcast, Elise Holtzman talks with Dr. Larry Richard of LawyerBrain about why lawyers tend to score low in resilience, how personality traits affect the way they respond to stress and change, what helps build resilience over time, and how lawyers can better manage the traits that make them effective at their work.
2:52 - What constant change does to the brain's threat response
6:09 - Why lawyer personality can make adapting to change harder
11:39 - Which lawyer traits are learned and which are largely genetic
14:35 - How legal training reinforces skepticism
16:49 - The difference between fixed traits and improvable resilience
18:58 - What resilience actually looks like in practice
21:02 - How low resilience changes the way criticism is experienced
24:06 - The connection between isolation and resilience
28:11 - When the traits that help lawyers succeed start working against them
30:46 - Four areas lawyers can focus on to strengthen resilience
31:26 - Replacing catastrophizing with realistic optimism
35:33 - Why positive emotions matter more than lawyers may think
41:03 - Building resilience through stronger relationships and presence
43:43 - How self-care supports the other resilience strategies
46:17 - Learning to use lawyer traits without letting them take over
Mentioned In How Lawyers Can Build Greater Resilience
LawyerBrain LLC
Dr. Larry Richard on LinkedIn
Dr. Larry Richard | The "Lawyer Personality" and Becoming a Happier Lawyer
Thin-Skinned: Why Lawyers Are So Low in Resilience and the New Science That Can Help
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The Lawyer's Edge
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