Best practice guidelines to address the mental health challenges in legal practice

In this edition, Richard Martin, CEO of the Mindful Business Charter (MBC) and LawCare Champion and peer supporter, discusses the new Best practice guidelines to address the mental health challenges in legal practice. He provides insights into the development of these guidelines and emphasises the opportunity they bring to reshape workplace culture across the sector, envisioning a healthier and more supportive legal profession.

The inquest into the tragic death of Vanessa Ford earlier in the year shocked the profession. The evidence challenged us all in ways that previous tragedies perhaps had not, leaving many people at all levels of the profession unsure of how to process it and how to respond to the many questions it raised - as well as those being asked of us by colleagues. Through our Open Letter we offered to facilitate a discussion around how we, as a profession, should respond.

That invitation resulted in a meeting of senior leaders of the profession in June where it became clear that there was the energy and opportunity to begin to make meaningful change. From that meeting a working group of senior leaders of the profession was established who met over several months to formulate ideas. They also had the benefit of input from a range of other professionals in the field. The output, the Best practice guidelines to address the mental health challenges in legal practice, were published in September around a further meeting of senior leaders of the profession. We are now following up that meeting with a series of meetings around the UK to further socialise the Guidelines. Find out more about these meetings at the end of this article.  

The Guidelines are intended to be aspirational – we know that most firms and teams will need time to put in place the measures proposed. We also know that there will need to be support and sharing of ideas and resources across the profession. At MBC we are committed to providing that support and facilitating that sharing.

The Guidelines are divided into the following sections:

Culture

This is about putting wellbeing at the heart of your business strategy on the basis that to perform well people need to be well. We encourage role modelling of self-care by senior leaders, a senior sponsor who will advocate and lead on wellbeing, training for everyone on looking after oneself as well as for managers in maintaining healthy teams and an awareness of the particular factors that create risk for lawyers based on who they are and what they do. We also recommend the adoption of reward, performance assessment and promotion models that take account of the individual’s impact on the wellbeing of people around them – and not just their financial contribution.

Reporting

This is about reporting to a senior board on key mental health data across the organisation and having someone responsible and accountable (with suitable empowerment) to improve the position.

Support

Many organisations will already have much of this in place already. The Guidelines advocate good line manager support, mental health first aiders (or something similar) and a buddy system to apply at all levels (including, importantly, the senior leaders who too often feel that mental health interventions and supports are for other people, not for them).

Risk assessment and intervention on an individual basis

Here the guidelines call for organisations to measure the hours people are working and to step in and conduct meaningful risk assessments where there is cause for concern given those hours being worked. They also recommend regular opportunities for individuals to disclose known mental health issues and for people to report (anonymously) concerns they may have over the wellbeing of others – and for those concerns to be taken seriously and acted upon.

Risk assessment and intervention at an organisational level

Here the Guidelines advocate using survey and other data to understand how different groups and teams are doing, to understand why and then to celebrate good results and intervene (and measure the effectiveness of the intervention) where there is evidence of poor wellbeing.

Third party organisations

Finally, the Guidelines recognise that in the context of legal services people will often be working closely with people in other organisations – whether they are clients, other firms or suppliers. The Guidelines recommend various steps that we can take to support the wellbeing of people we work with in other organisations and recognise that there is much clients and suppliers can do to support each other in promoting wellbeing, and holding each other to account.

We are confident the Guidelines are robust and are capable of building lasting change in the profession. For that to happen they need to move from words on a piece of paper to real change. That requires the engagement of people right across the profession and at all levels. The more the profession can move “as one” the greater the chance of progress. There is a window of opportunity here. It behoves all of us, for ourselves and for the generations that will come after us, to take that opportunity. The current generation of leaders of the profession are not responsible for the culture they have inherited. We can, however, take ownership of the legacy we leave behind.

Richard Martin is the CEO of the Mindful Business Charter and is a LawCare - the mental health charity for the legal sector Champion and peer supporter.

Join MBC for upcoming meetings

MBC are holding a series of meetings around the UK to further socialise the Guidelines. They have already had one in Bristol, and the next ones are:

• Manchester - Thursday 28 November 4pm, hosted by DLA Piper
• Glasgow - Tuesday 3 December 4pm, hosted by Ashurst
• Leeds – Wednesday 29 January 12.30pm, hosted by Womble Bond Dickinson
• Cardiff – Wednesday 12 February 4pm, hosted by Blake Morgan
• Birmingham – Wednesday 12 March 4pm, hosted by Pinsent Masons

If you would like to attend any of those meetings then please email anna@mindfulbusinesscharter.com.