Stress and the City

Mastering Stress as a City Lawyer: The Art & Science of Transforming Your Approach

Life as a City lawyer can be exhilarating yet relentless. Tight deadlines, high-stakes deals, and the weight of client expectations often create a whirlwind of stress. While you can’t eliminate these external pressures, you can change how you respond to them.

Take the story of James, a corporate lawyer juggling a high-profile merger. As the deal's deadline loomed, he found himself working around the clock, his mind racing with "what-ifs." His heart pounded daily, his shoulders tensed as deadlines loomed — classic signs of his body’s stress response kicking in. His instinct was to push through, ignoring his physical and emotional needs, sneak in a drink before last orders to unwind, believing this was the only way to succeed.

James’s situation is likely familiar to many lawyers. The nervous system reacts automatically to perceived threats, relying on learned responses to cope. For some, this means diving headlong into work, for others, avoidance, or zoning out. To start mastering our stress we need to understand our baseline and go-to response.

Part 1: Establish Your Baseline

Even though humans share 99.9% of their genetic code, we are not clones.

Research suggests we are born with autonomic nervous systems (ANS) that exhibit varying levels of sensitivity.  This influences how we respond to stimuli and environmental changes. 

The ANS, responsible for regulating involuntary functions such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rate, operates on two primary branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. These systems work together to maintain balance, but the degree to which each person’s ANS reacts can differ significantly from birth.* 

Some infants may have a more reactive sympathetic nervous system, leading to heightened stress responses and difficulty calming down, while others might have a more sensitive parasympathetic system, allowing them to recover from stress more quickly*. These variations in sensitivity are thought to be influenced by genetic factors, prenatal conditions, and early life experiences, shaping how a person manages emotions and stress throughout life.

Part 2: Recognise Your Reaction

Each of us has a default way of reacting to stress, shaped by past experiences. Maybe you’re a fighter, charging into conflicts with verbal intensity. Perhaps you take flight, avoiding challenging conversations or delaying decisions. Some lawyers freeze under pressure, while others fawn, over-accommodating to please colleagues or clients.

The Stress Dial: Stress isn't binary — it’s more like a dial with levels that escalate depending on the intensity of the challenge. We can think of these stress responses as “The 6 Fs”:

1. Fawn - Trying to please, appeasing people

2. perForm – Overworking to avoid conflict or criticism, trying to be perfect

3. Fight – Arguing, snapping, being verbally aggressive

4. Flight – Avoiding things, leaving the room, fleeing into booze, drugs, compulsive behaviours, flight of thought into daydream or catastrophising

5. Freeze – Zoning out, mentally checking out, body "frozen", stuck

6. Flop – Collapsing. Body shuts down, we fall asleep, or faint.

Action:

(a) Check in with your body right now. Are you in fight-or-flight mode, or in "rest and digest," where you feel calm and focused? Do this often.

(b) Pause and reflect on how you typically react to stress - or take five minutes to login and try our stress assessment. Last time you felt overwhelmed or threatened, which of the above reactions kicked in?

Part 3: Notice Your Narrative

Stress plays out in the body—but often resides in our mind. Humans talk to themselves. We all do it. Striving to assess, make meaning or reassure ourselves. Through language, memory and these narratives, we try to anticipate the future based on our past experiences in order to protect ourselves.

Do you catch yourself thinking, “If I don’t do this perfectly, my career is over” or “No one else seems to be struggling—why can’t I keep up?” These mental scripts can trigger or amplify our response to stress, locking us into a cycle of anxiety.

Action: Start observing what you say in your head. What stories do you tell yourself during high-pressure moments? Are they helping or hindering you?

The Art & Science of De-Stressing

Stressful situations in legal practice are inevitable, but learning to manage your reaction and your narratives can make all the difference.

Master Your Body:

1. Breathing Exercises: When you feel tension rising, take slow, deep breaths to calm your nervous system.

2. Physical Awareness: Notice tension in your shoulders, jaw, or neck. Drop your shoulders, stretch, or simply wiggle your toes to bring yourself back into your body.

3. Relaxation Practices: Regular mindfulness or yoga sessions can help reset your nervous system, making you more resilient over time, as can rhythmic activity like rowing, walking, martial arts.

Master Your Mind:

1. Reframe Your Thoughts: If you’re thinking, “I’ll never get through this,” try remembering a time you got through something and replacing it with, “I’ve handled challenges like this before, and I will again.”

2. Therapy: Professional support helps you notice your reactions, regain some control and process underlying past experiences that are affecting how you currently interpret situations, creating healthier mindsets.

3. Journaling: Writing about your experiences and emotions can help you untangle the mental knots that past and present stress creates.

The Power of Connection

It’s worth noting that our stress reactions are often exacerbated by isolation. City legal work can be all-consuming, leaving little time for family and friends. But connecting with trusted colleagues, mentors, and friends outside of work can be transformative. Sharing your experiences and finding mutual support helps resilience and can activate your parasympathetic nervous system.

The Road to Resilience

Mastering stress doesn’t mean eliminating it—stress is an inevitable part of City law. But by understanding our baseline sensitivity and our stress response, altering our narrative, and practicing body and mind techniques, we can transform the way we experience and handle pressure.

Start small. Take a moment to breathe, relax your shoulders, or notice that self-critical thought. These actions may seem minor, but they’re the foundation for thriving in one of the world’s most demanding professions. London’s legal landscape may be challenging, but with practice, you can navigate its impact with resilience and calm.

How We Can Help

At The Circle Line, we understand that stress is an inevitable part of a demanding profession, especially for city lawyers. That's why we offer a comprehensive range of tools, diagnostics, training, and therapy designed to help you transform how you or your team manage stress.

Whether you're seeking to pinpoint the underlying sources of ongoing anxiety through our diagnostic assessments, learn practical techniques through tailored training programs, or find lasting relief with expert therapy and immersive training, we provide the support you need to thrive in your career and personal life. Our holistic approach empowers you to not just cope with stress, but to change your mindset and raise your overall emotional intelligence, enabling you to perform at your best with clarity, focus, and balance.

If you'd like to explore what we can offer, find out more here or get in touch: hello@thecircleline.co.uk

References:

Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 201-216.

O'Connor, T. G., & Touchette, E. (2007). Prenatal and postnatal stress and child development: The role of autonomic nervous system regulation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(6), 280-285.

Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. (2004). The long shadow of temperament. Harvard University Press.

Barker, D. J. P. (2004). The developmental origins of adult disease. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 23(6 Suppl), 588S-595S.

Perry, B. D. (2002). Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation, and “use-dependent” development of the brain: How “states” become “traits.” Infants and Young Children, 14(3), 29-40.