NINE LAWYER SUICIDES A YEAR IN WASHINGTON — AT LEAST

Published in Federal Bar Association, May 2026 ,

Newsletter Leslie Hagin, WA Lawyers Assisting Lawyers (WaLAL)

The most recent Washington State data for suicides by occupation shows 55 lawyer suicides over a six-year period (2018-2023), an average of more than nine a year.  Twice as many of these were struggling with “mental” health than with “physical” health. Thirteen of the 55 had a history of suicidal thoughts, plans, or attempts. Eleven had disclosed their suicidal intent to someone beforehand.1  

The actual number of lawyers who commit suicide in Washington is almost certainly substantially higher.  

‍ ‍June is National PTSD Awareness Month. June 27 is PTSD Screening Day. Studies show a significant correlation between PTSD and suicide, controlling for physical illness and other mental disorders.  Many lawyers, especially in certain practice areas (e.g., criminal, torts), experience continual indirect occupational exposure to client and witness PTSD, a criterion for their own secondary PTSD diagnosis.   

Lawyer PTSD and suicides take root in a legal culture marked by maladaptive perfectionism, shame, stigma, and isolation.  Sustained proactive efforts by law firms and other legal employers are critical to changing this culture and saving lawyer lives.2 

Effective efforts include well-trained peer support.  Evidentiary studies show nothing breaks down stigma, shame, isolation, and fear of discipline or reputational harm — projections which keep lawyers from seeking help — like peer support.   

‍ ‍WaLAL offers free and independent peer support workshop training to law firms and other legal employers, tailored to their workplaces and practice areas.  We provide continuing consultation and other services to such workplace peer support networks. 

Collaborating with WaLAL demonstrates a legal employer’s clear and tangible commitment to attract and retain the best individuals in the organization, and to the value of lawyers taking care of themselves and each other.   It is also cost-effective.  40-70 percent of disciplinary and malpractice cases involve lawyer mental distress, and 1 in 4 lawyers is contemplating leaving the profession due to “burnout.”   

1 WA State Department of Health, WA Statewide Suicide Deaths, 2018-2023 (“Lawyer”) (State Death Certificate data; State Violent Death Reporting System data). 

2 See e.g., Joanna Litt, Big Law Killed My Husband:  A Open Letter From a Sidley Partner’s Widow, American Lawyer, Law.com (November 2018) (“[H]e would rather die than live with the consequences of people thinking he was a failure”).