How to Prove a Lawyer is Disabled

Practicing law demands a level of focus, stamina, and mental agility that few other professions require. Whether you're litigating in court, advising corporate clients, or managing a firm, your ability to function hinges on more than just showing up—it depends on high-level cognitive performance, sound judgment, and emotional resilience. When a medical condition begins to interfere with these abilities, filing for long term disability benefits may become necessary.

But proving that you’re disabled from practicing law isn’t always straightforward. Insurance companies often misunderstand or underestimate the true nature of legal work.

Below we'll discuss how lawyers may qualify for long term disability, what evidence is most persuasive, and how an experienced long term disability attorney can help build a strong claim that reflects the real demands of your profession.

 How do lawyers qualify for long term disability benefits?

If you’re a lawyer looking to file for long term disability (“LTD”), you may qualify for benefits by meeting the criteria outlined in your policy. Typically, you are eligible for long term disability if your medical condition prevents you from performing the material and substantial duties of their occupation.

Most LTD policies define disability in one of two ways. Under an “own occupation” definition, you must show that your symptoms prevent you from performing the specific duties of your job as a lawyer. Under an “any occupation” definition, you must show that your condition prevents you from performing the duties of any job for which you are reasonably suited by education, training, or experience.

For lawyers, the material duties of the occupation go far beyond simply sitting at a desk. Legal practice requires a combination of high-level cognitive abilities and physical functioning, all working together under demanding and often high-pressure conditions. Insurance companies often overlook just how integrated these demands are.

In reality, the role of an attorney often requires:

• • High-level analytical thinking to interpret complex legal issues, apply precedent, and craft persuasive arguments
  • Strong written and verbal communication to draft detailed legal documents, advise clients, and present cases in court or negotiations
  • Sustained attention and concentration over extended periods, especially when working under tight deadlines or managing large caseloads
  • Executive functioning skills such as time management, organization, and the ability to shift between tasks quickly and accurately
  • Emotional resilience and sound judgment to navigate client interactions, supervise staff, and make strategic decisions under pressure
  • Computer and document management proficiency for conducting legal research, drafting pleadings, and reviewing large volumes of information

Because insurers often focus narrowly on physical abilities—such as the capacity to sit for extended periods—it’s crucial to demonstrate how cognitive, psychological, or pain-related symptoms interfere with these core professional functions.

For example:

• • Chronic pain or musculoskeletal disorders may make it difficult to sit through depositions, trials, or lengthy client meetings.
  • Fatigue, autoimmune disease, or neurological impairment can disrupt concentration, slow processing speed, and hinder complex analysis.
  • Cognitive decline or depression can impair decision-making, memory, and communication, all essential to effective advocacy.
  • Anxiety or other mental health conditions can interfere with managing clients, appearing in court, or meeting demanding deadlines.

In addition to cognitive demands, the physical aspects of practicing law can be significant and are often underestimated. These may include:

• • Prolonged sitting and posture maintenance during depositions, trials, client meetings, and long workdays
  • Frequent typing and computer use, which can be impaired by conditions affecting dexterity or endurance
  • Mobility for court appearances or travel, which may be necessary for litigation or in-house counsel roles with multiple locations
  • Reliable stamina to work long hours, attend meetings, and maintain a professional presence throughout the day

When these functions are compromised by a medical condition, even partially, it can prevent an attorney from safely and effectively performing the core duties of their role. That’s why it’s crucial for a long term disability claim to present a full picture of both the cognitive and physical demands of the legal profession.

How do insurers define the “occupation” of a lawyer for disability claims?

When evaluating a lawyer’s long term disability claim, insurers typically rely on standardized occupational resources, such as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles ("DOT") and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), to define what your job entails. While these resources provide a general framework, they often fail to capture the true scope and intensity of a lawyer’s work.

The DOT, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, classifies the occupation of “Lawyer” under code 110.107.010 as a sedentary position, meaning it generally requires about six hours of sitting and two hours of standing or walking in an eight-hour workday. It describes duties such as conducting research, analyzing documents, developing legal strategies, drafting pleadings and contracts, and advising clients on their rights and obligations.

Similarly, O*NET, a more modern database, lists the lawyer occupation under code 23-1011.00 and identifies skills such as logical reasoning, communication, and information analysis as essential to the role. However, both sources present an average depiction of the occupation rather than the individualized realities of legal practice.

In practice, the work of a lawyer extends far beyond what these classifications suggest. Lawyers often:

• • Work long, unpredictable hours to meet court deadlines and client demands.
  • Juggle multiple complex matters simultaneously, each requiring sustained mental focus.
  • Travel frequently for hearings, trials, or client meetings.
  • Supervise and collaborate with associates, paralegals, and support staff.
  • Endure high stress from adversarial settings, tight timelines, and ethical pressures.

Because these responsibilities are not fully reflected in the DOT or O*NET descriptions, insurers may underestimate the cognitive, emotional, and stamina-related demands of the profession. This makes it critical to provide your insurer with detailed evidence demonstrating how your specific job duties differ from the generalized descriptions. Demonstrating these nuances helps ensure that the insurer evaluates your claim based on the real demands of practicing law, rather than an oversimplified federal job classification.

How do cognitive and psychological impairments affect a lawyer’s ability to work?

Cognitive and psychological impairments can profoundly affect a lawyer’s ability to perform their job, even when the symptoms seem subtle. The practice of law demands sustained concentration, sharp memory, quick reasoning, and clear judgment—skills that are often compromised by medical or psychological conditions. When these cognitive abilities decline, it becomes nearly impossible to meet the high standards of accuracy, timeliness, and professionalism required in legal practice.

For example, cognitive impairments can significantly disrupt a lawyer’s ability to perform essential duties—even if they appear physically capable of working. These challenges often affect the very functions that legal work demands most.

Common cognitive difficulties include:

• • Difficulty focusing, which can make it hard to read and comprehend lengthy case files, analyze complex contracts, or stay engaged during client meetings, depositions, or court appearances
  • Memory issues, leading to lapses in recalling case law, court dates, deadlines, or key client information—putting both the lawyer and their clients at risk
  • Slowed processing speed, which can interfere with the ability to review documents efficiently, respond quickly in negotiations or court, or adapt to shifting arguments in real time
  • Impaired executive functioning, making it difficult to organize legal arguments, manage caseloads, draft persuasive briefs, or maintain consistency across tasks and deadlines

Psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety disorder can further undermine an attorney’s ability to function. Symptoms like fatigue, indecisiveness, and emotional reactivity can erode confidence and affect professional relationships. High stress levels (common in litigation and client-driven environments) can amplify mistakes and reduce the capacity to meet the constant demands of the legal profession.

Even mild cognitive or emotional impairments can have serious professional consequences because the legal field leaves little margin for error. The ability to analyze intricate legal issues, maintain composure under pressure, and communicate with precision is fundamental to the role. When cognitive or psychological symptoms interfere with these functions, a lawyer may no longer be able to perform the material and substantial duties of their occupation—making long term disability benefits essential for protecting their financial and professional stability.

What evidence is most important to prove a lawyer is disabled?

If you're a lawyer filing for long term disability benefits, your claim hinges on more than just a diagnosis. Your insurer will expect detailed, credible evidence that clearly explains why your condition prevents you from performing the specific demands of practicing law.

Insurance companies won’t take your word for it—and they often don’t understand the intense cognitive, emotional, and ethical pressures that come with legal work. That’s why the right mix of medical, vocational, and occupational evidence is critical to a successful claim.

Here’s the kind of evidence that can strongly substantiate your claim for benefits:

Medical Evidence

Medical records are the foundation of any long term disability claim. These should include:

• • Office visit notes from your treating physicians
  • Diagnostic test results (such as MRIs, lab work, or imaging)
  • Treatment history and responses to various therapies or medications
  • Physician statements that explain how your condition limits your ability to work

But to get your claim approved, these records should go beyond merely listing your symptoms. They should connect your impairments directly to the cognitive and functional demands of legal work. Vague or generalized notes aren’t enough.

Neuropsychological Evaluation

If your disability involves cognitive impairment, neuropsychological testing is often a key piece of evidence. These evaluations measure attention, memory, executive functioning, and processing speed. For attorneys, even subtle deficits in these areas can compromise your ability to practice ethically and effectively.

A strong neuropsychological evaluation report will explain how your specific deficits impact the complex thinking, judgment, and communication skills required to practice law.

Vocational Assessment

A vocational expert can provide an independent analysis of how your medical limitations affect your ability to perform your job as a lawyer. This goes beyond whether you can physically show up at a desk. It asks: Can you meet deadlines? Concentrate for long periods? Handle stress? Engage in strategic thinking and analysis?

These assessments can also rebut your insurer’s own vocational consultants, who may try to minimize the demands of your profession or wrongly assert that you can perform “similar” work.

Detailed Job Descriptions

It’s helpful to show your insurer the real-world demands of your specific legal role. This includes:

• • The number of hours you worked
  • The specific types of tasks you performed (e.g., litigation, transactional work, client counseling, research, writing)
  • The level of responsibility and decision-making required
  • The cognitive and emotional stress involved

This information may come from your employer (if you work in a firm or company), but you can also submit a personal statement describing your role in detail.

An experienced long term disability attorney can:

• • Work with your treating doctors to ensure medical records and letters are thorough, accurate, and supportive
  • Help schedule and coordinate neuropsychological testing with qualified evaluators
  • Refer you to vocational experts who understand the legal profession and can prepare credible reports
  • Craft a detailed narrative of your occupational duties and how your condition prevents you from performing them
  • Anticipate and respond to common tactics used by insurers to deny claims from high-performing professionals

Do partners, associates, and in-house counsel face different challenges in LTD claims?

Yes, and understanding those differences is essential when preparing a strong long term disability claim. The demands of legal practice vary widely depending on your role, but insurance companies often gloss over these distinctions. They may treat “lawyer” as a generic occupation, failing to appreciate the unique cognitive, managerial, and emotional pressures tied to each position.

For example, law firm partners are often responsible for far more than legal work. In addition to practicing law, they typically:

• • Supervise teams of associates and support staff
  • Manage client relationships and expectations
  • Make strategic business decisions for the firm
  • Handle marketing and business development efforts
  • Take on high-stakes matters that require sound judgment and leadership

When a partner files for long term disability, insurers may overlook these managerial duties and focus only on whether they can perform isolated legal tasks—like reviewing documents or writing memos—without considering the executive-level demands of the role.

Associates, by contrast, often operate under serious workloads and rigid deadlines. Their work requires:

• • Sustained concentration for long hours
  • Extensive legal research and complex writing
  • Meeting high billable hour requirements
  • Rapid adaptability to shifting assignments and partner demands

Even moderate impairments in attention, memory, processing speed, or stamina can make it impossible to function in this high-pressure environment. But insurers sometimes minimize the role’s demands by cherry-picking examples of basic tasks the claimant can do, ignoring the cumulative toll of full-time legal practice.

In-house counsel face yet another set of challenges. Their work often involves:

• • Navigating corporate dynamics and internal politics
  • Managing risk across various departments
  • Providing rapid legal guidance in fast-moving business contexts
  • Acting as the point person for high-stakes corporate decisions

Here, the pace may differ from private practice, but the breadth of responsibilities—and the need for sound judgment and strong communication—remains just as intense. A medical condition that affects mental clarity or decision-making can have significant consequences, even if the workload appears more “manageable” on paper.

That’s why it’s so important to build a claim that reflects the real-world duties of your specific position. A long term disability attorney can help ensure your job duties are clearly defined, well-supported by employer statements and vocational evidence, and not reduced to an oversimplified job label.

Without this, insurers may wrongly conclude that you can return to work simply because you retain some basic legal abilities—ignoring the full scope of what your job truly requires.

Why do insurers often misunderstand the demands of a lawyer’s job?

Insurance companies often miss the mark when evaluating disability claims from lawyers because they tend to reduce the occupation to its most superficial elements. If you can sit at a desk and type, they may argue that you must be able to work. But practicing law demands far more than just physical presence.

Rather than considering the true cognitive and psychological load of legal practice, insurers frequently rely on overly simplistic measures like:

• • Sitting tolerance: Many denial letters note that the claimant can sit for long periods, as though that alone means they’re capable of resuming legal work.
  • Basic computer use: If you can send emails or review documents occasionally, insurers may assume you can return to your full duties.
  • Partial functionality: They may focus on what you can do (like attend a meeting or write a memo) without considering what you can’t do consistently or reliably.

This narrow view ignores the real demands of legal work, which often involve:

• • High-level cognitive functioning: Legal analysis, strategic thinking, and decision-making under pressure
  • Interpersonal demands: Managing client relationships, leading teams, and handling sensitive negotiations
  • Time sensitivity and stamina: Meeting tight deadlines, working long hours, and maintaining sharp focus over extended periods

For a lawyer with a serious medical condition, these are the exact areas most likely to be impaired. Yet insurance companies often fail to grasp how even subtle physical, cognitive, or psychological limitations can make continued practice unsafe, unethical, or unsustainable.

A skilled ERISA long term disability attorney can help push back against this kind of narrow analysis by developing the right medical and vocational evidence to show the full picture of your professional duties and why you can no longer meet them.

How can a long term disability attorney help strengthen a lawyer’s claim?

As a lawyer, you understand the value of strategic advocacy—yet it’s often difficult to turn that lens on yourself, especially when dealing with a complex, deeply personal issue like disability. That’s where working with a long term disability attorney becomes essential. Handling your own long term disability claim isn’t just difficult; it can be risky. Disability insurance companies are skilled at twisting evidence, overlooking key limitations, and undervaluing the demands of legal work.

Your legal background gives you insight into the importance of evidence and argument, but an experienced LTD attorney knows how to navigate the insurer’s tactics and protect your rights under your policy.

At Riemer Hess, we have successfully handled the long term disability needs of a broad spectrum of lawyers ranging in practice areas and levels of experience. Our attorneys can strengthen your long term disability claim by:

• • Reframing your occupational duties: Insurance companies often use generic or overly narrow job classifications, like "legal professional" or "office worker," to deny claims. A disability attorney can work with vocational experts and your employer to accurately describe the true scope of your responsibilities—whether you’re a partner managing a book of business, an associate handling relentless caseloads, or in-house counsel advising a corporation in real time.
  • Gathering targeted evidence: We coordinate directly with your treating physicians, help arrange neuropsychological or Functional Capacity Evaluations, and can refer you to vocational experts who understand the nuances of legal work. The goal is to produce clear, credible documentation that ties your medical limitations to your actual job demands, not just to generic work tasks.
  • Challenging insurer assumptions: If your insurance company focuses on sitting tolerance or partial functionality, we push back with evidence showing that legal work demands sustained focus, strategic thinking, and ethical responsibility. We also know how to spot and counter flawed logic in denial letters or biased insurer medical reviews.
  • Managing deadlines and appeals: If your claim has been denied, you may only have a limited window to appeal—especially if your policy is governed by ERISA. We ensure that your appeal is comprehensive, fully documented, and framed to anticipate potential litigation if necessary.
  • Leveling the playing field: Ultimately, our job is to take the legal burden off your shoulders and give your claim the best chance of success. While you focus on your health, we focus on the strategy. We make sure your insurer sees the full picture of your professional life and why your disability prevents you from continuing in your role.

Riemer Hess has been helping disabled professionals, including many lawyers, successfully receive their benefits for over 30 years.  Our disability lawyers will tackle your unique case with our proven strategy.  We know how to bypass an insurance company’s roadblocks and protect your financial future.  Call us today at (212) 297-0700, or click the button below to schedule a free consultation.