Jason Shefferman is passionate about wellness and creating a better working environment in the legal profession.
“My goal is to leverage my law degree to help other lawyers through wellness initiatives and community support,” said Shefferman, a degree candidate from the WashU School of Law and student speaker for the law school’s recognition ceremony.
Here, Shefferman, founding president of the Wellness in Law & Life Society at WashU, shares his views on the interconnectedness of happiness, community and entrepreneurship, and how he aims to encourage other people to pursue their passions.
What got you interested in wellness and law?
Law is a challenging profession. Lawyers are often busy and don’t have much time for introspection or thinking about the big picture. When I started law school, I began noticing how focused and dedicated my fellow students were to their studies, maybe at the expense of their well-being.
I’ve always been interested in wellness. I think it’s very important for us as law students and as lawyers to prioritize mental and physical health, as well as academics. So, I founded the Wellness in Law & Life Society. We organize several events on campus and in St. Louis and serve as a point of connection. We really want to show people that they can be happy and they can pursue a legal career that is balanced, fulfilling and rewarding.
Your speech to the graduating class will focus on community. What does community mean to you?
My mom passed away seven months ago. Following her death, it was really, really hard. But the support I got from the law school community pulled me through. I heard from classmates I hadn’t talked to in years, saying they were here for me. People were dropping food off at my apartment. To me, community feels like a family. You don’t need to be related by blood to be family.
Before I started law school, I traveled to see more than 40 of my future classmates across the country, and I helped create the group chat for our class. I threw a huge first-year party the weekend before school started, which over 80% of our class attended.
The point was to meet, have everyone come together and to see each other as people, as humans, rather than as law students. It was an uplifting environment for all of us, which can sometimes be difficult to find in law.
How will you continue this work after graduation?
I’ve accepted a position with Cooley LLP, working in startup law, focusing on private financing for companies like Zoom and Uber, as well as other startups. Entrepreneurship is a path for people to pursue their passions. Entrepreneurship can be a lot of different things, but I think the connection between pursuit of happiness, community and passion is what excites me. I love being around people who are passionate about what they do.
I also envision a leadership role within the firm, emphasizing the importance of community and support. I want to encourage passion, and I want to be a person my colleagues can come to if they are having a difficult time, much like the work I do through the wellness society at WashU. As artificial intelligence becomes a bigger part of the practice of law, the human element will continue to be as important, if not more so. It’s about facilitating more connections and being there for people and building a community.
