The Practice Management Advisory Service of the D.C. Bar presents the Small Firm Lunch and Learn Series. Each program in this series will explore a topic of particular interest to members who are starting, managing, or growing law firms in the District of Columbia.
Sessions take place at noon via Zoom videoconferencing.
October 8, 2026 - Lunch and Learn: Thriving Under Pressure | The Predictable Impact of Chronic Stress on Health & Performance
Presented by Mark Brezzell, Founder and CEO of MDB LiveConnext LLC
Legal professionals routinely operate under sustained pressure, demanding workloads, high-stakes decisions, and limited opportunities for recovery. Although stress is often treated as an unavoidable part of legal practice, its effects on the body and brain are predictable, measurable, and increasingly important to professional performance.
“Thriving Under Pressure” examines how chronic stress can influence attention, judgment, emotional regulation, sleep, inflammation, glucose regulation, and cardiovascular health. The session connects medical science with the everyday realities of legal practice, helping attorneys recognize early warning signs and understand why traditional approaches to stress management may fall short.
Participants will leave with practical, evidence-informed strategies for reducing accumulated stress, recovering between demanding interactions, protecting decision quality, and supporting sustainable professional performance. You will learn how to:
- Distinguish short-term, adaptive stress from chronic stress that can undermine health and performance.
- Recognize the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral warning signs of excessive stress.
- Understand how sustained pressure can affect attention, judgment, memory, emotional regulation, and decision quality.
- Identify connections among chronic stress, disrupted sleep, inflammation, glucose regulation, and cardiovascular risk.
- Apply brief, practical techniques to reduce physiological activation during demanding workdays.
- Use structured recovery strategies between meetings, negotiations, hearings, and other high-pressure interactions.
- Develop healthier daily practices that support resilience, professional effectiveness, and long-term career sustainability.
For more information on this program and other services offered by the Practice Management Advisory Service you may contact Daniel M. Mills or Kaitlin McGee, practice management advisors, at [email protected].
