Drinking to cope with stress is the main reason that lawyers say they drink. I used alcohol to cope with stress and to “get through” for 20-years until it became too much. It starts at uni, moves into the workplace and then you reach your mid-40’s feeling pretty “ordinary”.

Sophie, a 48-year-old lawyer, said that she “would often frequently end up drinking two to two and half bottles of wine… It just helped get me through a long arduous night… and when I got home I would have another glass of wine to tune-out work and relax before going to bed… I would wake up feeling like crap needing to get to work super early and do it all again.. I truly believe that had I kept going down that path, I just would have broken.”

Pumping out an advice can feel tolerable not if you have a glass of red to accompany it, right?  You can forget that you are not spending time with your family, that you are bone-tired or that you are actually not coping well.

Drinking in law firms also seems to accompany every celebration, from attracting new clients, case wins to debriefing with colleagues and escaping from a combative day.

The drinking, the adrenaline and the camaraderie is incredibly exciting in your 20s and 30s; then not so much in you 40s; then you start to wonder “why am I doing this?”, “what am I gaining here?” and “how do I want to live the second half of my life?”.