Martin Seligman Ph D. is a past President of the American Psychological Association and is the father of modern “positive psychology”. Today he is the Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center.  His work has focused on the question of what leads to a good life. In 2002 he published the book “Authentic Happiness, Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment”. In this book he included a section addressing “Why are Lawyers so Unhappy?”. “Positive Psychology sees three principal causes of the demoralization among lawyers”. The first is pessimism, as in having a pessimistic explanatory style.  The second is low decision latitude (i.e. you believe you have a limited number of choices in your work) in high stress situations. The third: “To the extent that the job of lawyering now consists of more win-loss games, there is more negative emotion in the daily life of lawyers.”

Seligman’s prescription for “Countering Lawyer Unhappiness” includes the following recommendation: “Every law firm should discover what the particular signature strengths of their associates are…. Exploiting these strengths will make the difference between a demoralized colleague and an energized, productive one. Reserve five hours of the work week for “signature strength time”, a nonroutine assignment that uses individual strengths in the service of the firm’s goals.”