Bar YLD promotes health and wellness.

For the third year in a row, The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division has designated May its "Health and Wellness Month."

With every year that passes, the YLD increasingly sees indications that quality of life concerns have become more important than ever to young lawyers. President-elect Zack Zuroweste opined as to why this might be: "Young lawyers view the world and define the quality of their lives differently from their parents, and we see it every day. Younger people, generally, are now drawn to more urban environments, select more healthy foods, and place greater value on personal time, vacation, experience, and what we often hear described as 'balance.' Because health and balance are priorities for young adults, and young lawyers specifically, we embrace that trend and hope its positive effects will carry over to the legal field."

The Florida Bar's 2016 Economics and Law Office Management Survey supports this view, finding that 60 percent of attorneys under age 35 ranked "quality of life" as the second biggest factor impacting their ability to practice law successfully, behind only "client expectations." This percentage gradually decreased with age, with 51 percent of attorneys age 36 to 49, 44 percent age 50 to 65, and only 30 percent over age 65 saying the same.

"From my informal conversations around the state and from Florida Bar survey results, we know that wellness and balance are some of the most important and yet elusive issues for young lawyers," said YLD President Katherine Hurst Miller. "Everyone's in a slightly different place. Some of us need a little encouragement to go to the gym. Some of us need a reason to take a break from work. Some of us need help from a medical professional. That's all OK, and it's all part of our Health and Wellness month."

At the same time, law firms and other employers are increasingly focusing on mental and physical health to recruit young attorneys...