“We brought in two experts who have a wealth of knowledge in their perspective fields,” said Sara Gozo, president of the BWBA. “Andrea Bonina is a member of the firm Bonina & Bonina, she is the past president of the Brooklyn Bar and the Bay Ridge Lawyers Association and a member of the BWBA. She’s also a mother of two. Fritz Galette is a state licensed psychologist with 23 years of experience in the field of mental health.”

Fritz explained what stress is, how to identify signs of it and offered breathing techniques to help deal with it. He even hooked Bonina’s partner and brother John Bonina up to his laptop to measure his heart rate while demonstrating some of his breathing techniques.

“We try to avoid and minimize stress, but I actually try to teach people that stress is inherent in everyday life,” Galette said. “We can’t get away from it. It’s how we respond and react to it that is the key, the balance that we’re trying to strike.”

Bonina spoke about how being a lawyer is one of the most stress-inducing professions. She cited a study by the American Psychological Association that pointed out that attorneys are 3.6 times more likely than non-lawyers to suffer from depression. She then cited another study by the American Bar Association and the Betty Ford Clinic that said one in three lawyers are “problem drinkers,” 28 percent suffer from clinical depression and another 19 percent suffer from anxiety disorders.

Rather than just dwell on the problems, Bonina suggested 10 ways to help reduce stress for attorneys.

1. Technology is Your Friend: “I would suggest that everyone find ways to make technology work for them. Maybe that’s working remotely one day a week or having a policy at your office where people can work remotely,” Bonina said.

2. Set Rules for your Availability: “Obviously there are times you will have to return a call or deal with a situation, but nobody can be on 24/7. It’s just not physically possible,” she said.

3. Plan Downtime: “When you’re on a plane, they tell you that if the oxygen mask drops from the ceiling, that you have to put it on your face first then help those around you. There is a reason for that, because otherwise, you won’t be able to help those around you,” she said.

4. Outsource Errands That You Hate: “There is no reason why you should spend your entire weekend trying to manage little details instead of doing something nice for yourself that is going to relax you. Look for ways to make your life easier.”

5. Say No: “The fact is that you can’t be everything to everyone. As lawyers, we could be out every single night of the week. In this building alone there are three events tonight. You have to learn how to pick what it is that lights you up, what it is that makes you happy to be involved in.”

6. Have a Good Support Network: “We’re lucky in Brooklyn to have many great organizations like the Brooklyn Women’s Bar, like the Trial Lawyers Academy, where there are opportunities to get to know colleagues to form a support group.”

7. Exercise: “A lot of people say they don’t have time, but it’s so important to keep yourself physically fit and remain active. Exercise releases hormones that cause happiness and increases blood flow to the brain. You are doing it for your heart and body, but also your mind.”

8. Write Down your Goals: “I do this at the start of every week. It’s very helpful with stress to know what you have to get done. When you come in on Monday, it’s a much better feeling of knowing what you need to do.”

9. Work Smarter, Not Harder: “My favorite [Abraham] Lincoln quote ever is, ‘If I have six hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the saw.’”

10. Good is Better Than Perfect: “As lawyers, there are things you have to do perfectly. You can’t be good balancing your IOLA [Interest on Lawyer Account Fund], that has to be perfect. But perfectionism is a trap because nobody can be perfect. People who are perfectionists can be unduly harsh and are not great at prioritizing.”

Lunch With a Judge

The BWBA also hosted its monthly “Lunch with a Judge” event earlier on Tuesday with Judge Rosemarie Montalbano, who sits in the Kings County Criminal Court. That event gives members of the BWBA an opportunity to listen to the judge’s experiences and offers them a chance to speak with the judges in a less formal setting.

“Judge Montalbano talked about becoming a judge, which is something that she said she never planned to do,” Gozo said. “She also talked about her family and how her father was very old fashioned and she had to convince him to send her to college and then law school. She also talked about her move from the civil side to the criminal side and her experiences with the local bar associations.

“I always like to hear about a person’s background because I feel like we can all learn from other people’s experiences, but different judges bring up different topics,” Gozo continued. “Judge Landicino, for instance, started a conversation about our responsibility to be civil in the courtroom.”

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