A survey of around 1,700 legal professionals carried out by charity LawCare recently uncovered that 69 per cent of lawyers have experienced mental ill health over the last year, painting a worrying picture of wellbeing within the industry that according to one law firm owner, could merely be the tip of the iceberg.
The study uncovered that only 56 per cent of lawyers affected had disclosed their issues at work, with concern around the fear of stigma, reputational damage and the financial and career implications cited as main reasons for not speaking up.
LawCare’s findings also determined that legal professionals are at high risk of suffering from burnout, with individuals aged 26 to 35 the most likely to be affected. Female professionals and those from ethnic minority backgrounds suffered burnout more than the average.
Meanwhile, 28 per cent of legal professionals surveyed said that their work required them to be available to clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 65 per cent said that they checked emails outside of work hours to help meet demand. 58 per cent said that they had experienced financial worries at some point in the Covid-19 pandemic, and a similar amount expressed concern over their work-life balance.
35 per cent of respondents reported to be getting between six and seven hours of sleep a night on average over the two weeks prior to completing the survey, while 25 per cent averaged five to six hours, and 12 per cent said they were getting less than five hours. The recommended amount of sleep is between seven and nine hours per night.
Concerningly, 22 per cent of respondents also reported that they had experienced cases of bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace over the previous year.
Despite mental health suffering so badly within legal firms, the figures revealed that only 48 per cent of managers or supervisors had at some point received leadership, management or supervisory training.
LawCare CEO, Elizabeth Rimmer, said following the publication of the survey that it provided “robust evidence” of a “stressed, tired and anxious” legal profession that was at high risk of burnout.
“Working practices in the law that undermine mental health need to change”, Rimmer said.
“We want this research to be the catalyst for us to come together as a profession to create that change, to create a culture in law that puts the law’s greatest asset – it’s people – first. The experience of living and working through a global pandemic has had a profound effect on us all and presents an opportunity like no other to reimagine the future and make it happen.”
Joanne Tyler, owner and director of sole practising solicitors’ firm, Tyler Law, believes that the conclusions of the survey could merely be the entrance to a deep and winding rabbit hole on the state of mental health across law.
Joanne Tyler told The Leaders Council: “I have personally spoken to a large number of professional colleagues over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I strongly believe this survey is just the edge at the very tip of a large impending iceberg.
“Throughout Covid, I have been shocked at how many firms I have had as counterparts in a transaction, only to find my emails being unanswered and letters not being responded to. The simple reason for this has been that the fee earner, solicitor or licenced conveyancer just upped and left not just to go and work at another firm but quit the industry completely. They went to go and work in a supermarket because they would have regular pay, holidays without having to do two weeks work before going on holiday just to get on top of things, and then return to a mountain of work making them feel as though they had no holiday anyway. That person left the profession because they would be faced with far less levels of stress compared to what they face in the legal profession day-to-day.
“Others have left the industry to become delivery drivers and managers in different sectors. I truly believe that the pandemic was the crisis point for something that has been building up over the last few years, rather than the root cause of the problems we are seeing.”
Joanne Tyler was also critical of a ‘culture of blame’ that had manifested within the legal sector and urged regulatory bodies in the industry to do more to help overburdened professionals.
“Clients seem to live their lives off the apps on their phones, their social media accounts, and so many have become demanding and aggressive because they expect an instant response. Regulatory bodies also seek to blame legal professionals for the slightest thing when clients are unhappy, and so some in the industry are now wondering what the point of regulatory bodies actually is. If they are not there to support us and instead blame us, we won’t bother contacting them. They need to do more.
“One partner in a law firm reached out to me for assistance because his other business partners had effectively disappeared off the face of the earth during the first Covid lockdown and he couldn’t cope with the volume of work. A fee earner I spoke to at one firm said that his practice had furloughed over 150 staff members and left a skeleton crew to cope with the sheer volume of work coming through. Sadly, as the survey shows, many of those affected have not and will not have spoken out because there is a stigma within law firms around respect for individuals’ ability to cope with stress and whether they are partner material.”
The consequence, Joanne Tyler explained, is that many talented people within the sector are considering leaving the industry, perhaps never to return, which could spell issues for recruitment in the future.
To avoid such hardship, Joanne Tyler said that the industry must move forward into the 21st Century and begin to take mental health and wellbeing seriously.
“Those leaving are not blaming the legal firms they work for but rather this culture of blame from clients. Unreasonable demands, the high levels of stress, excessive working hours, the impact on social lives and families…it all adds up.
“It is also mind bending that businesses assume it will all revert to normal once the pandemic is over. I do not believe it will and any such thinking is outdated. Legal firms are having fee earners considering their positions in the legal profession and assessing whether they even want to stick around, let alone become partners. In many cases the profession has just not caught up with the modern age on mental health, and it has to.”
For Joanne Tyler, mental health and wellbeing are key and personal issues, because she herself admitted to having experienced challenging moments of her own.
“I am not holding myself out to have coped any better than anyone else affected by these issues. I have had tears, tantrums and moments of complete and utter despair. I have also had very few hours of sleep and just keep waiting for the nightmare to be over, but it is not going anywhere, it has just lessened. Like so many others, I have been sucked into focusing on that next file, that next client and on getting the job done, telling myself I will worry about everything else as and when I have the time.
“I deeply sympathise with other partners of legal practices who are doing this and just trying to keep their business going, their staff employed, and avoid the eye watering liabilities for the legal practices of which many have personal guarantees and their homes attached as security. My counterpart owners of legal practices have proven track records of managing stress, being adaptable, creative, flexible, experts, managers of people and even with all of that, it just doesn’t seem to be enough to keep on top of the struggles.”
As Joanne Tyler outlined, one area of the legal profession that has been hit hard by the pressures of the pandemic are the Probate Registries, with industry operators having to comfort the bereaved and deal with ever increasing caseloads.
“For every person that has died, that is a grieving family at the end of the phone for the lawyer involved. During the pandemic, that turned into intense levels of calls and months of grieving families at the end of phones. No one was prepared for that stress. No one prepares you for the client who comes out of intensive care to find out that their husband, mother, and father-in-law have died in the space of a week. No one ever trained me in my life to deal with just one of many calls like this.
“With probate registries having been closed prior to the pandemic due to cutbacks, the subsequent pandemic and lockdowns have made the process of obtaining a grant of probate complete carnage. Some probate registries even turned off their phones because they could not cope with the levels of work, and the lawyers who’ve stuck it out have been emotionally, mentally, and fundamentally supporting their clients with much of this coming at the expense of their own mental wellbeing.
“We know we are not the NHS; we know we have not been on the frontline saving lives and many of us feel guilty just for complaining because we are paid to deal with these issues. But mental health and wellbeing is suffering to the detriment of individuals, and it will eventually come at a cost to the industry. There must be more support and more understanding.”
Responding to the report, the Law Society said that now is a “pivotal” moment to change the way that the legal profession addresses wellbeing and mental health, with the pandemic and new hybrid working practices having changed the landscape of the industry.
Law Society president Stephanie Boyce said: “In order to tackle these issues, we encourage our member firms and organisations to ensure they are providing regular catch-ups, training for managers, mental health and wellbeing education, mental health policies and signposting sources of support. That way we can begin to work towards a psychologically safe, healthy and supportive workplace.
“Improving mental wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility. The culture and practice of law must change, and now is the time to do it.”
Citing the Law Society’s response, Joanne Tyler is determined to ensure that her firm helps provide the catalyst for the progressive change needed in the legal sector around mental health. She also issued a rallying call to others, urging them to play their part to ensure the longevity of their businesses and the industry at large.
“All of us at Tyler Law experienced the ups and downs of working from home. So, I have started by calling staff back into the office so that we can alleviate some of the pressures of the job by sharing the burden with each other. Truthfully, it has been difficult to readjust to working in the office full time and the need to work in an office full time no longer exists, so I have asked my staff for open and frank comments about what they thought has worked well, not so well, and what they feel could work better.
“We have, therefore, put in place a hybrid model so we have some time in the office which staff seem to want and need, together with working from home. I strongly suspect that this will be an ongoing process but the staff feel able to have fee and frank conversations to enable an environment which will illicit change. We have also put in place a training day at least once every two months which will not involve work, but shared experiences. We will use these as opportunities to unwind, get to know each other, what is going on in our lives, and laughing together.
“Apart from the required legal training, this is now the mental and emotional holistic approach I am employing at the firm. I have always tried to carefully manage the work I take on, but I am now even more mindful of the clients who are demanding from the outset and whether they are now the right fit for the firm. I found the Law Society’s concept of being the ‘catalyst to create change’ an empowering one and I would ask other business owners to seek the truth within their business to find ways to create a new working model that can assist all employees from partner to fee earner and address mental health. The businesses that can adapt and change, will be the more likely to survive, thrive and maintain mentally and emotionally healthy staff. People are your greatest asset.”
