Lisle Baker, Newton Ward 7 city councilor and professor at Suffolk University Law School, was awarded an achievement award by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) for his focus on expanding the curriculum around law students’ well-being.

“If you’re going to be as effective for your clients and the public interest as you want to be, you’ve got to be at your best,” Baker said. 

Baker was given the Annual Award of the Section on Balance & Well-Being in Legal Education, emphasizing his efforts to persuade the American Bar Association (ABA) to make well-being a nationwide curriculum standard across ABA-accredited law schools. 

“I was one of a number of people who’ve been, I think—I hope—instrumental in getting legal education to begin to think about the law student,” Baker said. “Well-being is an important part of professional development, not just something that’s nice to have.”

“The awardee serves as a model of Balance & Well-being Section ideals, develops innovative programming that integrates this work into curricular or co-curricular offerings, contributes to academic scholarship in the field, and regularly serves the Section, their law school, and greater legal community by providing access to well-being programming and/or services,” reads the AALS website. 

By focusing on personal well-being, Baker believes that one also amplifies their professional development. His integration of this focus into the curriculum actively prevents mental health from becoming a rampant issue, whereas in the past, focus on mental health has been remedial, he explained.

Law schools, especially top-rated ones, have extremely competitive environments. To secure jobs in Big Law or other heavily coveted positions, students need to perform at the top of their class, which sometimes means outstudying and outworking their peers, often to one’s own detriment, explained Baker.

“What kind of character do you want your lawyer to have, and what does it mean to be fit to practice law? Physically fit, mentally fit, all those things,” Baker said. 

Baker explained that in order to properly complete any job, one has to be well-rested and fulfilled in other areas of their life, not just work. This is his focus, he said, when he teaches his law students at Suffolk University. 

Baker believes that his profession as a law professor and councilor both require him to take care of himself and his mental health to better serve and aid those around him. 

“It’s sort of somewhat the same,” Baker said. “One of the ways that you take care of yourself, I think, is actually taking care of others. By definition, I have to take care of people.”

Baker brings care into all aspects of his life: by ensuring he focuses on helping others in whichever job he is currently working on, service is seen as a sustaining force in his professional life, he explained. 

“If you’re not taking care of yourself, you can’t take care of somebody else,” Baker said.

Baker was acknowledged at the awards ceremony during the 2026 AALS Annual Meeting on Jan. 9.