Bar Mental Health Questions Deter Treatment, Advocates Say

Aspiring lawyers experiencing heightened emotional distress during the pandemic may not seek treatment over fears about mental health questions on bar applications, say advocates who want states to eliminate the language.

A quarter of students seeking graduate and professional degrees, a number that includes those in law schools, screened positive for major depressive disorder, according to a pandemic-era survey. Some 17% of students reported depression in a similar analysis at 15 law schools in 2014.

“It is easy to imagine that a conceivably large number of current law students have experienced sharply increased mental health distress this year, but ...