Legal practice is so often framed around competence, precision, and technical mastery—but anyone who has actually lived this work knows that the emotional terrain is just as demanding. The emails that land too late, the conversations that turn sharper than expected, the weight of other people’s crises sitting in your inbox. Ooh golly, that can be heavy.
Over time, I’ve found myself seeking comfort, although I was really unsure what I was really seeking. I found this comfort in something surprising; stoicism. This started a few years ago, as I navigated heavy hearted terrain and since then I find myself returning—almost instinctively—to Stoic thought.
How did I find it, you ask? Well, YouTube, of all places. Ryan Holiday (aka The Daily Stoic) to be exact. A time poor mum, lawyer, wife, and eveyrthing-in-between, I loved his short snippets of hearty advice and wisdom.
I found Stoicism as a comfort blanket of making sense of the world. Not as doctrine, and certainly not as a moral lecture, but as a set of steadying principles that help me move through the profession (and life!) with more intention and less turbulence. I also found it fabulously intriguing that texts from thousands of years ago, can still seem so very apporpriate in today’s modern times. Fascinating, really!
As many of you already know, I enjoy paying these insights forward, so I share them here with that intention (and as a contribution of my ever-growing archive for me to return back to when needed).
This post isn’t offering instructions. These words are simply reflections from a lawyer-turned-educator who is still learning to navigate the emotional currents of our work, our profession. If something here helps you recalibrate or breathe a little more easily, wonderful.
Why Stoicism?
Legal work can feel like a constant negotiation with pressure: deadlines, expectations, personalities, systems. Stoicism offers a simple but radical anchor—focus on what is within your control, release what isn’t, and act with integrity.
For me, it has become a quiet companion on the harder days. A reminder that clarity and steadiness are skills, not accidents.
There’s three steps that can be a beginning into your own stoic practice.
1. The Pause: Respond, Don’t React
One of the most transformative Stoic habits is so simple it’s almost embarrassing: pause.
Before replying to the sharp email. Before carrying someone else’s urgency as your own. Before letting a meeting’s tension colour the rest of your day.
I ask myself: What is actually happening here? What part of this is mine to hold?
This moment of reflection isn’t emotional avoidance—it’s emotional literacy. It creates just enough space to choose the next step rather than surrendering it. I take back control, even though it’s easy to succumb to the pull to take ownership over everything in my vicinity.
2. Control the Controllables
The profession trains us to prepare, to anticipate, to strategise. Yet so much remains outside our hands: the outcome of a matter, another practitioner’s tone, the pace of a court list.
Stoicism redirects attention back to the only stable ground—our conduct, our preparation, our attitude, our boundaries.
When I work from that footing, I feel less frayed and more effective. It’s not a grand philosophical shift; it’s a practical reorientation of my energy. Something I want to protect at all costs!
3. Practise Virtue, Not Just Competence
The Stoics centred virtue: wisdom, courage, justice, temperance.
In modern legal practice, I see this as showing up with integrity and clarity, even when it’s inconvenient.
For instance, after a client meeting, I would always take the time to recap what we covered and confirm the next steps. It’s mundane, but it’s respectful. It reduces confusion, strengthens trust, and signals that their matter is held with care—not just processed. It gives me some grounding whilst I prepare to walk away and take the next steps in my day (and often, in the client’s matter that I’m handling). I owe it to them; I owe it to myself.
Virtue lives in the small acts.
Why Emotional Discipline Matters
Emotional discipline is not suppression; it’s awareness paired with choice. This is something that is often confused when everyday people hear the word “stoic”; people think it’s emotionless and it’s quite the opposite. In fact, anyone delving into the historical texts of stoic thinkers, some of them are ALL about emotion.
Emotion supports healthier client relationships, clearer judgment, and a working life that feels anchored rather than reactive. It guards against burnout not by asking us to toughen up, but by helping us understand ourselves more honestly. As many of the professional already know (and some have personally experienced!), burnout is a real risk for many professionals. Anything (and I mean, ANYTHING) and any time spent on attempting to mitigate the risk of burnout, is time well spent!
What next?
Let’s be real, whilst Stoicism won’t solve the systemic pressures of the profession, it will give you a framework—quiet, durable, humane—for navigating them.
If you’re curious, try one small practice: journal a line or two at the end of the day, pause before responding, or ask yourself what’s really within your control. Let it be an experiment in noticing.
Take what resonates. Leave the rest. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s presence.
With kindness,
Michele
With grateful thanks, photo by Sam Szuchan on Unsplash