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- 😵💫 Why does burnout happen to in-house legal teams? (part 2)
😵💫 Why does burnout happen to in-house legal teams? (part 2)
1 min. read
Sarah Irwin
May 24, 2025
In-house life is stacked against your mental health in ways most people never see. 😔
In my last newsletter, we broke down the first set of burnout triggers that legal teams face daily - from team size to EOQ chaos.
This week, I’m digging deeper into the day-to-day stuff that chips away at your energy, confidence, and capacity until you hit the wall.
Catch up here before diving into part 2 below.
Introducing ITGC Tech Picks!
Too busy to sit through endless legal tech demos? Overwhelmed by noise, or wary of a hard sell?
Let us do the work for you!
ITGC Tech Picks is a one-hour, curated product spotlight where I bring you:
One standout legal tech product
A real-time walkthrough + live Q&A
Honest, unscripted discussion about where it actually fits in an in-house legal function
No jargon. No pressure. Just clear value.
Why You’ll Love This:
✅ I do the filtering - only vendors that genuinely help in-house teams make the cut
✅ I ask the tough questions so you don’t have to
✅ It’s fast, focused, and friendly - 1 hour max
✅ You’ll leave knowing what the tool does, who it’s for, and whether it’s worth your time
✅ If you’re interested, I’ll connect you personally with the vendor, but only if you ask
✅ You’ll always get the replay + a handy takeaway after the session
The first tool spotlight - Wordsmith AI - is built to help prevent burnout when you’re ready to buy tech. It can:
Automate repetitive work
Speed up processes by meeting you where you already work (e.g. in Slack)
Free up your time by letting the business self-serve on work Legal doesn’t actually need to handle (it’s designed for other teams too, like Procurement!).
1️⃣ Being overwhelmed – You’re trained to power through, no matter what. But with small teams and big workloads, overwhelm is basically built in.
2️⃣ No one checking – People don't really ask lawyers if we're ok. They assume we are ok because we are tough and confident. But it's extra important with lawyers because we tend to hide our feelings, which we are conditioned to believe are a sign of weakness (ugh!).
3️⃣ People not following process – Legal intake. Contract workflows. These aren't for fun. They’re there to protect your brain. Every time someone bypasses them, the pressure piles up.
4️⃣ Being micro-managed – The number one cause of burnout in anyone, being micro-managed is especially bad for in-house lawyers if it's coming from a colleague outside the legal team who doesn't get your job.
5️⃣ Unrealistic expectations – People expect lawyers to know everything immediately. Flattering and all, but your expertise is actually researching and locating the answer quickly. Lack of awareness of legal team goals contributes to unrealistic expectations too.
6️⃣ No downtime – Even when the laptop’s shut, your brain’s still spinning. Late nights and zero decompression time don’t help. You need space to reset.
7️⃣ Lack of control over workload – Too many demands. Too few people. Requests flying in from all directions. All this and more can make you feel out of control, overwhelmed and stressed.
8️⃣ Ignored advice – Sometimes clients ignore your advice. Fine. But when you work in-house, you watch on in real time as the consequences of that play out. It's different in private practice where often you don't know if it was followed either way. Even the build up to knowing your advice is going to be disregarded can be stressful if it's something big.
9️⃣ Being “ganged up” on – You can usually handle pushback. But the wrong timing (like EOQ), or repeat hits, or knowing you’re right and still being overruled? That can hit hard.
🔟 The final trigger – There’s always one. Could be any of the points covered here, or in Part 1, or something else entirely. But there is always one short-term trigger that send you over the edge and into burnout territory.
Would love to hear from you if I’ve missed anything or if you’re struggling - email me back and I’ll personally reply! 💜
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This week’s epiphanies
✨ It’s shocking how fast business can pick up!
✨ Always darkest before the dawn and all that
✨ This journey is not I repeat NOT for the faint hearted - if you want to start your own business, you will need to forget the employee mindset and learn a whole new set of skills
✨ And have the humility to do this - sales and marketing especially
✨ Patience, self-belief, game face (the long game that is)
When you're ready, here's how I can help you further:
1️⃣ This newsletter is for content specifically on how to build a modern in-house legal function. If you're interested in insights on my journey from law to founder - and want to go deep on aspects of that as I build - subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter here.
2️⃣ I have Gumroad guides too if you want a DIY manual - grab them here.
3️⃣ 1:1 coaching calls (legal ops, legal tech, how to build a future-fit in-house legal team, starting a career like mine): email me at [email protected] and let's talk!
4️⃣ For legal tech and legal ops vendors: I can help you boost brand growth and generate funnel with your ICP - fill out this form.
P.S. Curious about in-house practice or simply want to reach out?
Don't hesitate to reply to this email - I'm happy to help with any questions, no strings attached.
Until next time,
Sarah 💜
by Sarah Irwin
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