Charles Figley was a pioneer in the field of compassion fatigue.

He describes the phenomenon in this way:

“We have not been directly exposed to the trauma scene, but we hear the story told

with such intensity, or we hear similar stories so often, or we have the gift and curse

of extreme empathy, and we suffer. Eventually, we lose a certain spark of optimism,

humor and hope. We aren’t sick, but we aren’t ourselves.” (Figley, 1995)

Individuals at high risk for compassion fatigue tend to be conscientious, perfectionistic and self-giving.

Other risk factors include being exposed to environments with low social support, high personal stress,

or having experienced significant loss or other trauma. These often combine with characteristics of the

legal profession to further heighten vulnerability to compassion

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