Awareness about wellbeing in the legal industry has never been greater. There’s extensive research and conversation about the inherent risks of our work, business practices, and culture and the impacts on our physical and mental health. Research has consistently called for systemic change in the profession, which presents a range of tasks to consider and implement. So, where do we start?
A healthy, well, thriving industry requires input at individual, interpersonal, organisational, and systemic levels. And it starts with us – all of us. We’re all a part of the system and influenced by its culture as much as anyone else. So understanding ourselves and our wellbeing in the context of our practice is a logical place to start.
The International Bar Association’s report (2021) recommends the legal profession can be inspired by how other professions navigate individual wellbeing. Other frontline workers, like psychologists, social workers, counsellors, nurses, and doctors, consistently help people in stressful and often crisis situations. Like many in the legal profession, they work directly with distressed public and have substantial caseloads. Unlike in law, though, other professional codes of conduct and practice standards explicitly refer to looking after their own health and wellbeing is their ethical responsibility. And many of their professional boards encourage, or even mandate, regular reflective practice to help manage the inherent risks of frontline work.
For about a century there has been scholarly discourse and research on reflection. Essentially, reflection is a deliberate process of exploring and critically analysing one’s thoughts and actions to affect some kind of change in them. The process is influenced by contextual factors, such as the timing of reflection, the circumstances that led to the reflective instance, and environmental factors. Reflection can involve iterative experimentation and is a continuous learning process. In a professional context, its purpose is to build capacity, proficiency, and potential. It helps people identify mental habits, values, worldviews, and biases and how these may influence thoughts, decision-making, interactions, and behaviour. Hence, reflection is a conduit for life-long learning, professional development, conscious leadership, and personal growth.
Reflective practice can be undertaken individually using a journal, with a trusted facilitator (such as a counsellor), or with a professional peer-group. It may feel foreign at first, so questions are a great tool to stimulate the process. Useful lines of inquiry might include:
- How does my worldview influence my practice and my view about how law is practised by others?
- How has the current legal profession been shaped by sociohistorical factors?
- How have these factors influenced the way we work as legal professionals?
- What does mental health and wellbeing mean to you personally and as a lawyer?
- How does your worldview influence your perceptions of mental health and wellbeing?
- What are your assumptions about legal practice and mental health and wellbeing?
We recognise the challenges of legal work, including complex social and emotional situations, that threaten or undermine wellbeing. However we fall short of the standards set by other frontline professions. In law, we have no culture of self-care or reflective practice, and the pervasive stigma attached to mental health issues all-too-often keeps any consideration of it under wraps. In one of the few articles on this topic, Rose and Maylea highlight that reflective practice may be used by legal professionals to minimise vicarious trauma, prevent burnout, support professional competence, improve emotional skills and capacity, and foster greater understanding of legal practice and the law. These outcomes are possible because the insights derived from reflective practice enables legal professionals to shift their perspective, even in small ways, and choose their actions more deliberately to support and improve wellbeing.
References
- Baron, P. (2015). The elephant in the room? Lawyer wellbeing and the impact of unethical behaviours. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 41(1), 87–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2015.1035209
- Brady, M. (2019). VLSB+C lawyer wellbeing project: Report on legal professionals’ reflections on wellbeing in the legal profession and suggestions for future reforms. Victorian Legal Services Board + Commission. https://lsbc.vic.gov.au/resources/lawyer-wellbeing-report
- Bradley, R. (2020). Improving psychological wellbeing in the Law, can it be done? Pandora’s Box, 27, 43–55. https://doi.org/10.3316/informit.391249462916001
- Cadieux, N., Cadieux, J., Gingues, M., Gouin, M.-M., Fournier, P.-L., Caya, O., Pomerleau, M.-L., Morin, E., Camille, A. B., & Gahunzire, J. (2022). Research report (final version): Towards a healthy and sustainable practice of law in Canada. National study on the health and wellness determinants of legal professionals in Canada, phase I (2020–2022). Université de Sherbrooke, Business School. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365867261_Research_report_Final_version_Towards_a_Healthy_and_Sustainable_Practice_of_Law_in_CanadaNational_Study_on_the_Health_and_Wellness_Determinants_of_Legal_Professionals_in_Canada_Phase_I_2020-2022
- Hyland, P. (2023). All we like sheep: The need for reflection and reflexivity in I-O psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 16(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2022.87
- International Bar Association. (2021). Mental wellbeing in the legal profession: A global study. https://www.ibanet.org/document?id=IBA-report-Mental-Wellbeing-in-the-Legal-Profession-A-Global-Study
- Kelk, M., Luscombe, G., Medlow, S., & Hickie, I. (2009). Courting the blues: Attitudes towards depression in Australian law students and lawyers. Brain and Mind Research Institute. https://law.uq.edu.au/files/32510/Courting-the-Blues.pdf
- Nguyen, Q. D., Fernandez, N., Karsenti, T., & Charlin, B. (2014). What is reflection? A conceptual analysis of major definitions and a proposal of a five-component model. Medical Education, 48(12), 1176–1189. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.12583
- Reich, J. F. (2020). Capitalizing on healthy lawyers: The business case for law firms to promote and prioritize lawyer wellbeing. Villanova Law Review, 65(2), 361–418. https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr/vol65/iss2/3/ Rose, M., & Maylea, C. (2023). The case for implementing legal clinical supervision within legal practice, and recommendations for best practice. Griffith Law Review, 32(2), 183–209. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10383441.2023.2260731
