About the Course
Introduction
This CLE webinar will examine how lawyer burnout, chronic stress, and work overload affect one's ability to ethically practice, serve the client, and use professional judgment. The panel will explore how to recognize burnout and impairment through common warning signs, and how to put into practice the boundaries that enable wellness.
Description
Lawyers manage heavy workloads with numerous client demands, adversarial interactions, and volumes of communication. These demands may lead to exhaustion, misfocus, deadline challenges, and more. Beyond personal wellness concerns, such impairment may bring professional responsibility concerns in the areas of attorney competence, diligence, communication, and supervision.
Listen as our panel discusses how burnout and chronic stress impact ethical lawyering, how attorneys can detect and manage warning signs before professional consequences occur, and how lawyers can enable practices to protect well-being.
Presented By
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Ms. Abella specializes in coaching and strategic consulting, guiding individuals and organizations to unlock their full potential. As a mediator, she is dedicated to helping parties reach amicable resolutions.
Dr. Carminati is a senior litigation strategist and legal operations leader with more than 17 years of experience designing, managing and scaling complex litigation and legal teams. Her practice sits at the intersection of high-stakes litigation, legal project management, eDiscovery and firm-wide operational leadership, with a particular focus on structure, accountability and execution in complex matters. Dr. Carminati has served in senior leadership roles across plaintiff-side and defense-side litigation environments, including as managing attorney, legal project manager, discovery counsel, general counsel and firm founder, overseeing hundreds of matters across multiple jurisdictions. Her work consistently centers on how litigation actually functions in practice, from intake and early case assessment through discovery, expert coordination, motion practice and resolution, rather than litigation as an abstract exercise.
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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An excellent opportunity to earn Ethics CLE credits. Note: BARBRI cannot guarantee that this course will be approved for ethics credits in all states. To confirm, please contact our CLE department at pdservice@barbri.com.
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Date + Time
- event
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
- schedule
1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
I. Burnout in legal practice: sources, impacts
II. Ethical duties relevant to burnout and chronic stress
III. Recognizing the signs for yourself and others
IV. Setting boundaries
V. Responses to a colleague impacted by burnout or stress
VI. Building a supportive and healthy culture
VII. Resources
The panel will explore these and other key areas:
- Spotting signs of burnout, chronic stress, and potential impairment
- How burnout impacts competence, diligence, communication, judgment, and client service
- Professional responsibility issues coming from stress or impairment
- Setting and communicating boundaries: clients, colleagues, supervisors, opposing counsel, and courts
- Balancing workloads: delegation, technology use and time limits, deadline management
- What to do when a colleague might be struggling
- Confidential lawyer assistance, peer support, and intervention resources
Related Courses
Sustainable Lawyering: Burnout Prevention, Wellness, Communication, and Ethical Duties
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Competence and Well-Being: Addressing Substance Abuse in Legal Practice
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Legal Ethics Issues When an Attorney Changes Firms: Managing Client Communications and Files, Work Product, Conflicts
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
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