PBI CLE – The December Pressure Cooker.
The end of the year can bring a perfect storm of pressure for lawyers: deadlines, billable-hour demands, client expectations, holiday obligations, family responsibilities, and the feeling that everything needs to get done at once. But December may simply magnify challenges that exist within the legal profession all year long.

It’s Not Just You. It’s the Environment.
Lawyers work in an environment that often rewards constant availability, perfectionism, long hours, and pushing through stress. While individual well-being matters, sustainable change requires a broader conversation about both personal responsibility and the cultures, teams, and systems in which lawyers work.

Stress Happens. Let’s Talk About What You Can Do.
In this interactive program, attorneys Brian Quinn and Courtney Schulnick will explore the realities of stress in the legal profession and what lawyers can realistically do to navigate pressure more effectively. Through candid conversation, current research, audience polls and discussion, and practical experiential tools, participants will examine how stress affects attention, decision-making, communication, reactivity, and well-being, and learn strategies for responding more skillfully when demands are high.

The program will also examine the role of legal employers and leaders in creating healthier workplace cultures and why boundaries, balance, and well-being cannot rest solely on the individual.

Don’t Just Resolve. Rethink.
As the year comes to a close, you are invited to move beyond the familiar promise that “next year will be different” and consider practical, sustainable changes you can make – for yourself, your teams, and the profession – in 2027.

So, what does meaningful change actually look like? Let’s dig in:

• The Year-End Pressure Cooker: Why December Can Feel Like Too Much
• Stress, Burnout, Perfectionism, and the Realities of Modern Legal Practice
• Lawyer Well-Being: Individual Responsibility vs. Organizational Culture
• How Stress Impacts Attention, Reactivity, Decision-Making, and Communication
• Practical Tools for Navigating Pressure in Real Time
• Boundaries, Balance, and the Role of Leadership
• Why Good Intentions and New Year’s Resolutions Often Don’t Last
• Creating Realistic and Sustainable Change
• Making 2027 Different: Individual Agency and Collective Responsibility