Lawyer Health and Wellbeing - How the Legal Profession is Tackling Stress and Creating Resiliency

BREE BUCHANANEMMA JONESDr Emma Jones is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield Law School, developing modules on digital lawyering and lawtech. Prior to that she was a senior lecturer and teaching director at the Open University Law School. She is also a senior fellow of the Higher Education Authority and an associate academic fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Emma’s research focuses on the role of emotions and wellbeing in legal education and the legal profession. She is academic lead on the Fit for Law project, working with the charity LawCare, to provide free online resources for legal professionals promoting emotionally and psychologically healthier ways of working. Prior to moving into academia, Emma was a solicitor in private practice, specialising in construction law.KATE DODDKate Dodd is a diversity and inclusion consultant who has a particular interest in working collaboratively with business leaders to develop the business case for cultural change. Kate advises Pinsent Masons LLP and Brook Graham Ltd and their clients across the full range of diversity topics. Kate’s interests include developing and embedding mental health and wellbeing strategies and helping businesses learn how to start conversations and reduce stigma. She has been heavily involved in founding and developing the Mindful Business Charter, which is a cross-industry set of principles, aimed at reducing unnecessary sources of stress and increasing wellbeing. The Mindful Business Charter has now been adopted by a number of leading law firms and financial services institutions. Kate is also passionate about supporting businesses achieve a better balance in relation to gender, race and ethnicity. She works with companies to develop strategies to attract and retain the best talent, and to cultivate the skills needed to serve their clients and communities. Kate is an employment lawyer by background, with 15 years’ post-qualification experience specialising in equality, diversity and inclusion. Kate is an experienced advocate and represented her clients in Employment Tribunals across England, Scotland and Wales. Kate also assists her clients with practical diversity initiatives, including setting up mentoring and buddying schemes and delivering unconscious bias training. Kate is a member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association, and a number of leading diversity networks.ELIZABETH RIMMERElizabeth Rimmer started her working life as a solicitor specializing in clinical negligence. She has been managing and developing charities in the mental health sector for over 15 years, and joined LawCare as chief executive in 2015.LUBNA GEM ARIELLEMATT DEANKAYLEIGH LEONIEKayleigh Leonie is a solicitor specialising in employment law and a trustee of LawCare, a registered charity that supports good mental health and wellbeing throughout the legal community. Kayleigh has undertaken research, written articles, and published best practice guidance for employers on supporting the wellbeing of their employees on behalf of the Law Society of England and Wales. Kayleigh holds regular roundtables for employers to share best practice on supporting wellbeing in the workplace.RICHARD COLLIERRichard Collier FAcSS FRSA is a professor of law at Newcastle University, UK. He has published widely in the area of law and gender and has recently been the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship in connection with the project Wellbeing, Law and Society: Politics, Policy and Practice. He is presently writing a book on wellbeing in the legal community for Cambridge University Press and has just conducted research funded by Anxiety UK (2018) into experiences of anxiety amongst junior lawyers. His previous work has addressed family law, fatherhood, criminology, the legal profession and legal education and research and books include: Men, Law and Gender (2010), Fragmenting Fatherhood: A Socio-Legal Study (with Sally Sheldon, 2008), Masculinities, Crime and Criminology (1998), Masculinity, Law and the Family (1995) and Fathers’ Rights Activism and Law Reform (ed. 2007). Richard is an editorial board member of Social and Legal Studies: An International Journal.PAUL BENNETTPaul Bennett, partner at Bennett Briegal, is a specialist in both professional practice and employment law work. Paul is a nationally recognized expert who can help if the situation is challenging or potentially career-defining. Paul works across England and Wales, with London and Manchester dominating as the locations of key regulators.JAMES PEREIRAJames Pereira QC is a practising barrister and coach. He was called to the Bar in 1996 and took silk in 2014, and is a tenant at Francis Taylor Building, Inner Temple, London. He is the co-author of several leading textbooks in his field of practice, and listed as a leading QC in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners Directory of the UK Bar. As a coach, he works with individuals, teams and organizations. He is an NLP Master practitioner, a trained organizations, relationships and systems coach, and a member of the International Coaching Federation. He co-writes a regular column in The Lawyer, “Loving Legal Life”, and is a regular public speaker in the field of leadership, wellbeing and performance in the legal profession. He is a co-founder of Gather Coaching (www.gathercoaching.com) and The Libra Partnership (www.thelibrapartnership. com).

It combines clear (and sometimes alarming) up-to-date data on lawyer wellbeing and mental illness, personal testimony of burnout from senior professionals, practical steps for individuals and organisations to enhance resilience, and an unanswerable case that those firms which put wellbeing at the heart of their business culture will be far better positioned to thrive, even in the current economic crisis.

• Chapter 1: The lawyer wellbeing movement, By Bree Buchanan, chair, ABA CommissionChapter 2: Emotional competence for wellbeing, By Emma Jones, senior lecturer, University of Sheffield Law SchoolChapter 3: The Mindful Business Charter, By Kate Dodd, diversity and inclusion consultant, Pinsent Masons LLPChapter 4: Culture and practice of law – creating lasting change, By Elizabeth Rimmer, chief executive, LawCareChapter 5: Conversations that matter, By Lubna Gem Arielle, corporate facilitator and applied theatre practitionerChapter 6: Creating psychological safety, By Matt Dean, byrne·deanChapter 7: Junior lawyers and mental ill health, By Kayleigh Leonie, Trustee, LawCareChapter 8: Anxiety and junior lawyers, By Richard Collier, professor, University of NewcastleChapter 9: Supervising without stress, By Paul Bennett, Bennett BriegalChapter 10: Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and Courts approach to mental health, By Paul Bennett, Bennett BriegalChapter 11: Having your cake and eating it – how enhanced wellbeing and excellent professional performance go hand-in-hand, By James Pereira, FTB Chambers