California lawyers face rising levels of burnout, vicarious trauma, and professional pressure. Resilience is increasingly recognized as essential to competence and ethical practice. This article explores trauma-informed strategies that help attorneys sustain performance, leadership, and well-being.

I knew something was wrong when I was sitting in court waiting for a hearing to start and noticed that my right hand was tapping reflexively on the counsel table. I had experienced these tremors after I had returned from deployment in Iraq but dismissed them as the usual signs of stress and fatigue, just like the hyper-vigilance and nightmares. But the tremors got worse…