The legal profession faces some of the highest rates of stress, burnout, and mental health challenges including depression, with suicide rates significantly higher than in many other fields. This discussion offers a compassionate, in-depth look at suicide in the legal community, focusing on how these losses impact individuals and their communities.
Watch our conversation that explores the unique stressors legal professionals face, the prevalence of stigma, and other factors that contribute to mental health struggles.
Our panelists are survivors of suicide and survivors of suicide loss and will share their personal stories, perspectives, and motivations for joining this discussion, providing a human-centered view of these complex issues. They offer insights, guidance, and hope for anyone facing similar struggles or seeking to better understand and support others. In addition, we discuss how to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide in the legal field.
This discussion aims to promote a supportive and stigma-free legal community while empowering individuals to seek the help they need for their well-being.
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Meet Our Panel
Dan Lukasik, Esq.
MODERATOR
Dan Lukasik is a 1988 graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law and the current Judicial Wellness Coordinator for the New York State Office of Court Administration.
Following his diagnosis of major depression and anxiety twenty years ago when the managing partner at his law firm, Dan created a weekly lawyer support group in his community for those who struggle with depression, anxiety, burnout, and chronic stress and the website Lawyerswithdepression.com.
Dan’s work on mental health has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The National Law Journal, The New York Law Journal, ABA Journal, Bloomberg Law, Law360, and many other national and international publications and media outlets, including CNN and NPR.
Dan has given over 200 presentations around the country on stress, anxiety, and depression for law firms, judicial organizations, bar associations, malpractice insurance providers, CLE programs, and law schools including, Harvard and Yale. An Adjunct Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law, Dan teaches a class, “Mental Health and Well-Being in the Legal Profession.”
Dan is the Executive Producer of the original documentary, “A Terrible Melancholy: Depression in the Legal Profession,” which has been viewed by legal professionals throughout the country. He is the recipient of the “Public Service Merit Award” from the New York State Bar Association and “The Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service” from his law school alma mater for his work in helping to destigmatize mental health problems in the legal profession and encourage people to seek help and support.
Dan is a certified trainer for Mental Health Works, Mental Health First Aid, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
As a member of the “New York State Task Force on Attorney Well-Being,” “The American Bar Association’s Commission Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being,” and the “New York State Bar Association’s Lawyer Assistance Committee,” Dan works with legal professionals and mental health experts across New York State and the U.S., to help create policies that promote good mental health and well-being in the law.
Stephanie Mitchell Hughes, Esq.
PANELIST
Stephanie Mitchell Hughes is an attorney and the Assistant Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, Franklin County affiliate. She has lived with depression and what she describes as generous episodes of suicidal ideation for more than 46 years. Stephanie writes about, speaks, and presents at national conferences on living with a mental illness, resilience, well-being in the legal profession, navigating change amid disruption, healthy workplaces, and life with Long COVID. She is a frequent podcast guest and sought to teach continuing education courses. Stephanie also hosts a LinkedIn Live Podcast entitled Resilience 2.0.
Connect with Stephanie:
Email: stephaniemitchellhughes@gmail.com
Website: https://www.stephaniemitchellhughes.com/
TEDXTalk: Out of the valley: Stephanie Hughes at TEDxColumbus
Gavin Alexander (He/Him/His)
PANELIST
Gavin Alexander is an experienced and passionate advocate and thought leader in the areas of mental health, well-being, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession and beyond. He is a licensed attorney, Mental Health First Aid Instructor, and Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist, and he currently serves as the Well-Being Director of Jackson Lewis a law firm with over 1,000 attorneys and 60 offices across the US. Before joining the firm, Gavin served as the first-ever Fellow of the SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. Gavin shared his own personal experiences with depression and near-death by suicide in the Boston College Law Review and, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and the ABA’s Law Practice Today, and he most recently authored “Influencing Lawyer Well-Being with Collaborative Clarity,” for PLI Chronicle. He regularly speaks at law firms, law schools, conferences, courts, bar associations, and other institutions.
Gavin studied Theater and Mathematics at Wesleyan University, and he graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 2012. After law school, Gavin clerked for Justice Ralph D. Gants at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and from 2013-2020, Gavin practiced as an associate in the corporate department of a global law firm.
Gavin was appointed by Governor Maura Healey in 2023 to serve on the Mass. Judicial Nominating Commission, and he also presently serves as a member of the SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being, the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs DEI Committee, the Institute for Well-Being in Law DEI Committee, the Boston Bar Association DEI Section Steering Committee, the board of Pride in Our Workplace, and the Advisory Committee of the Chief Justice Ralph Gants Fund for Racial Equity and Access to Justice. Gavin previously served as Co-Chair of the Mass. LGBTQ Bar Association, and on the boards of The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, Lawyers Depression Project, and Leadership Brainery.
Gavin was named one of the “Best LGBTQ Attorneys Under 40” by The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association in 2017, selected as one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 25 “Up & Coming Lawyers” for 2019, featured on the Mass. Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” list for 2018-2020, and inducted as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2020. In 2021, he received the Mass. Association of Hispanic Attorneys’ Leadership Award, and in 2022, he received the Kevin Larkin Memorial Award for Public Service from the Mass. LGBTQ Bar Association.
Terry Bentley Hill, Esq.
PANELIST
Terry Bentley Hill is a Dallas criminal defense attorney and nationally recognized mental health advocate who has become a vocal proponent for mental health rehabilitation in the criminal justice system. Additionally, Terry serves her profession as a leader in attorney wellness initiatives.
After earning a Broadcast Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Terry became a television news reporter covering the criminal courts. It was then that she decided to become a participant in rather than an observer of the legal system and made law school a goal.
The road to law school was long (twenty-five years) and fraught with life-quakes and tragedies that included the suicidal deaths of her former husband (an attorney) and youngest daughter. It was those events that defined the kind of attorney and advocate Terry would become.
At the age of fifty, Terry received her J.D. from Texas A & M University School of Law. Immediately after passing the bar exam, Terry volunteered with the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program and became active in the Dallas Bar Association’s Peer Assistance Committee.
A prolific writer, speaker, and CLE presenter, Terry’s advocacy for attorney wellness was rewarded with the State Bar of Texas Presidential Citation, The Texas Bar Foundation Terry Lee Grantham Award, The Texas A&M University School of Law Dean Emeritus Award, and the Mental Health of America Greater Dallas Prism Award.
Beyond her law related activities, Terry launched her own non-profit foundation with a focus on mental health awareness and education. It is through this organization that Terry carries her message of hope and healing to audiences throughout Texas and beyond. #stopmindingyourownbusiness.com.
The Law Office of Terry Bentley Hill
Attorney and Counselor At Law
3131 McKinney Avenue Dallas TX 75204
214.740.9955 (office)
214.740.9912 (facsimile)
terry@terrybentleyhill.com
www.terrybentleyhill.com