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A career in the law can be stimulating and rewarding in many ways, at both a professional and personal level. It can provide meaning and stability, and the opportunity to help others through providing access to justice. But it doesn’t come without challenges, particularly for those in the early stages of their career. A legal career is a marathon, not a sprint. Unfortunately, many lawyers too often prioritise their work over their wellbeing. For early career and young lawyers, who are particularly vulnerable to burnout and stress, this imbalance can cause wellbeing issues that lead to promising legal careers being cut short.

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What leaders in the law can do to create a wellbeing culture

While lawyer wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility, the potential for poor wellbeing to affect individuals, as well as organisational viability and liability, should see the topic appearing on leadership agendas across the sector.

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Understanding the barriers lawyers face in seeking help

To be able to effectively tackle the challenge of improving lawyer wellbeing, we first need to understand the barriers that lawyers face in seeking help.

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Why is poor wellbeing so common in the law?

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What poor wellbeing looks like

It’s no secret that wellbeing – or more accurately a lack or low levels of it – is a significant issue for the legal sector.

In our 2019 Lawyer Wellbeing Report, we highlighted research that suggests lawyers’ levels of non-specific psychological distress are high compared to population norms, as are their rates of depression. Evidence of poor levels of lawyer wellbeing is also supported by the International Bar Association, which found one in three barristers surveyed said their work had a negative, or extremely negative, impact on their wellbeing.

Addressing wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility. To do it effectively, we all need to understand what poor wellbeing looks like for lawyers so that we can work together to identify and mitigate the contributing factors.

What poor wellbeing looks like

For lawyers, poor wellbeing manifests in many ways, including:

  • Burnout – fuelled by exhaustion, high workload, long hours, an inability to maintain a work-life balance and low level of autonomy
  • Mental ill health – including stress, depression, anxiety and vicarious trauma
  • Physical ill health – physical health issues may be wide ranging in presentation and severity
  • Low levels of autonomy – including little control over what, where, when and how we work
  • Psychological safety – including an inability to speak up, embarrassment about raising concerns and fear of revealing mistakes. In the IBA study, nearly half of those surveyed indicated the fear of negatively impacting their career put them off discussing their mental health issues at work
  • Work intensity – which can be relentless, particularly for lawyers working on multiple matters (in our Lawyer Wellbeing Report interviewees commonly reported long work hours)
  • Sleep issues – including insomnia and disrupted sleep, and
  • Alcohol or drug abuse.
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What to look out for – signs of poor wellbeing

Good mental health, which includes wellbeing and resilience, is critical for all lawyers – professionally and personally.

At a professional level, as we highlighted in our Lawyer Wellbeing Report, poor wellbeing is a barrier to lawyers being able to do their jobs effectively and provide quality legal services to Victorians.

At a personal level, many lawyers are suffering relatively high rates of psychological distress. In fact, some studies have found rates of self-reported depression to be as high as one in two among law students, solicitors and barristers in Australia. Behind these statistics are the very human stories of the profound emotional, social and financial impacts on individuals and their families. 

Thankfully, the legal profession has started to recognise that wellbeing is an important issue. At an industry and organisational level, there have been many initiatives designed to improve the situation, including employee assistance programs, workplace flexibility, diversity and inclusion initiatives, wellbeing awareness campaigns and formal wellbeing training. We also know more can be done.

What is too often missing is self-care. While many of us will stop and ask others “Are you ok?”, we may not stop to ask the same question of ourselves.

Perhaps that’s because there’s still a shadow cast by historical perceptions that mental health issues were signs of personal weakness, of not being up to the job or of not having the ‘toughness’ required to succeed in the law. These attitudes sometimes resulted in bullying and discrimination.

Perhaps it’s because we are so busy juggling heavy workloads, client issues, pressing deadlines and the pressures of competitive environments in which productivity may appear to be prized over personal wellbeing.

There can also be significant pressures to perform to the ‘standards’ of the traditional legal workplace: billing every six minutes, meeting budgets, continuing to bring in new clients and work – all of which can cause stress.

Additionally, there is the impact of working with people who have suffered trauma and other tragedies. We may feel that our own issues, including the vicarious trauma we experience along the way, pale in comparison.

Or perhaps it’s because we are typically high performing individuals with strong work ethics who have normalised stress and anxiety as part of practising law.

Whatever the reason, it’s time we all looked after ourselves because wellbeing is vital for our health and for having a sustainable legal career and providing the best quality of service to our clients.

The first step is to reflect on how you really are. Some of the wellbeing warning signs to look out for are:

  • not sleeping well
  • struggling to concentrate and not getting things done at work
  • withdrawing from close family and friends
  • relying on alcohol and sedatives
  • not doing usual enjoyable activities or going out
  • feeling sad, hopeless, worthless, restless or that everything is an effort
  • having intrusive memories of client stories or material
  • being unable to switch off from a matter
  • questioning your professional competence
  • wanting to help your client beyond what is permissible and professionally appropriate, and
  • feeling increasingly detached and insensitive.

Beyond Blue has a simple checklist that will help you reflect on your feelings over the past month.

If your workplace doesn’t encourage employee wellbeing and self-care, this is probably a red flag. Remember that you have options. As a lawyer, you have a wealth of highly sought-after skills and knowledge that have great value in other legal workplaces. These skills are also highly transferable to a range of rewarding roles outside of the legal profession. So grow your networks and don’t be afraid to look around. Law firms are increasingly innovating to improve service delivery as well as staff wellbeing. There are law firms that pride themselves on putting staff wellbeing at the centre of their business model, including through their approach to flexibility and work-life balance (including for those in regional areas).

If you think your wellbeing could be improved, we encourage you to talk to your doctor, access an EAP service, or draw on the many legal profession wellbeing resources available:

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How lawyers can look after their wellbeing

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Form

Remote supervision of Supervised Legal Practice form

To be used in in situations where a supervisor and supervisee are employed by a different law practice/entity

Going Digital: Record-keeping guidance

We see problems when lawyers attempt to keep their files in both hard copy and digital form. It can be confusing and can result in the loss of information or records. Our guidance will help you navigate the process for going fully digital.

You can also refer to the LIV’s File ownership, retention and destruction guidelines.

For information about record keeping for trust accounts see here.

You can do it - files and documents can be kept in digital form only

Fully digital files are not only permissible, they have a lot of advantages. You can create a full record that is logically ordered and accessible, where the metadata gives a clear track record of the creation and provenance of documents.

We recommend getting your client’s consent to keep files and client documents in digital form only. You can do this in your costs agreement either from the start or by varying an existing agreement. An example of an appropriate clause to include in this type of agreement is available in the LIV Guidelines.

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Understanding how workplace culture affects lawyer wellbeing

Wellbeing is critical for all lawyers, both professionally and personally. The practice of law is an important and rewarding career; poor wellbeing can reduce a lawyer’s sense of satisfaction in their work and contribute to burnout and even to lawyers leaving the profession.   At a professional level, poor wellbeing is a barrier to lawyers working ethically and providing quality legal services to Victorians. 

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Legal costs and protecting consumer rights

Legal costs and protecting consumer rights

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