Wellbeing initiatives: Breakthrough or lip service?

Support For Lawyers

Support For Lawyers

There’s plenty of research on the links between work, workplaces, and wellbeing. In the past decade, even more studies about wellbeing in law,  both internationally and locally, have been published. Discussion and awareness about risks and solutions have become more common. And many law firms and legal organisations have adopted wellbeing policies and initiatives. The intention is very encouraging. The results … not so much.

Consider these findings:

General psychological distress and depressionThenNow
The 2016 landmark study by Krill, Johnson, and Albert in collaboration with the American Bar Association found:
– 28% of US attorneys experience depression.
– 19% experience anxiety.
– 23% experience problematic stress levels.
– 20.6% exhibited hazardous, harmful, or potentially dependent alcohol consumption. The majority reported turning to alcohol in lieu of seeking help for fear of career repercussions.		The 2026 ALM Mental Health Survey, conducted in partnership with the Stress & Resilience Institute, found:
– 35% of US lawyers experience depression.
– 66% reported general anxiety.
– 75% stated the legal profession has negatively impacted their mental health.
– While over 60% of firms report offering mental health benefits and/or employee assistance programs (EAPs), only 23% of employees use them. Many cited fear of career repercussions and prioritising billable hour targets as the reason.

In Australia specifically, the 2025 report from Holmes et al. on behalf of the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSB+C) found:
– 31.7% reported moderate to severe symptoms of psychological distress placing them at a higher risk for a depressive or anxiety condition.
Workplace pressures and burnoutThenNow
The 2020/2021 LawCare study (Life in the Law) found:
– UK and Irish legal professionals averaged a high burnout score (42.2 on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory).
– 69% reported they had experienced ill health due to work pressures.  		The updated 2025 LawCare report (Life in the Law) found:
– 50% of legal workers experienced anxiety either often or all the time within the previous 12 months.
– 79% regularly worked past their contracted hours.
– Over 70% attribute the above statistics to billable hour pressures and the pressure to always be on call.

The 2025 Lawyer Wellbeing, Workplace Experiences and Ethics report (VLSB+C) found:
– Business model and cultural factors that support excessive workloads and unreasonable working hours were among the highest-ranking challenges to wellbeing.  
Turnover intent and career attritionThenNow
The International Bar Association’s (IBA) 2021 global study found:
– Over a third of legal professionals feel work has negative impacts their mental health and wellbeing.
– One in three lawyers under 30 years of age wanted to leave the profession due to wellbeing concerns.  		The 2025 LawCare report (Life in the Law) found:
– One in three legal workers plan to leave the profession within five years.

The 2025 Lawyer Wellbeing, Workplace Experiences and Ethics report (VLSB+C) found:
– 29% reported their intention to leave their employer within the next 12 months.
– 8.4% expressed an intention to leave the profession within one year. This number rose to 10.7% in the cohort of practitioners with <5 years of post-qualification experience.  

Global rates of psychological distress and illbeing are stubbornly stagnant. In some cases, they’ve worsened. Despite the rise in awareness, open dialogue, and adoption of some wellbeing initiatives, these concerning figures suggest the road to hell may well be paved with good intentions.

Rhetoric versus reality: context matters

Several recent studies have investigated the prevalence and effectiveness of wellbeing initiatives. The results are a damning indictment of the legal industry’s apparently tokenistic approach.

The IBA’s 2021 report showed 82% of legal organisations stated wellbeing was a priority issue and 72% claimed they had wellbeing initiatives in place. However, only one third provided funding for these initiatives and less than 30% attempted to measure their impact. Further, of the organisations stating they had a wellbeing policy in place, only 39% had senior management implementing the policy and only 16% had senior managers with training in mental health and wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, most employees surveyed rated employer initiatives as ineffective. And the IBA Professional Wellbeing Commission’s 2024 follow-up study suggested little had changed. While there were some increases in organisations actively monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of measures (up to 39.21%) and management training (up to 31.11%), over 47% of employees still explicitly stated they doubted their organisation’s ability to effectively support staff with mental health challenges.

How organisations approach wellbeing shapes employee perception. Both the 2021 IBA study and the 2025 Lawyer Wellbeing, Workplace Experiences and Ethics report (Holmes et al.) revealed that where wellbeing supports were made available, many employees found there were inconsistencies between policy and practice. Consequently, most respondents felt the supports were inadequate, ineffective, and/or simply ticking a box.

Intention without sufficient action speaks volumes. And there are two key reasons why the actions currently taken are poorly received – one-dimensional wellbeing initiatives and the prevailing systemic, institutional norms.

We’ve all heard about the well-intentioned employee benefits like free gym memberships, in-house yoga or pilates classes, and catered healthy meals. 2025 data from the Australian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA) and the VLSB+C also shows 55% of law firms fund an EAP and 46% provide formal Mental Health First Aid training for staff. While these initiatives show more action by employers than in previous years, their focus is far from holistic. Plus, implemented in isolation, they’re one-dimensional and ineffective. They focus purely on individual risk and resilience but fail to address the systems and culture that undermine wellbeing. And in her keynote address at the 2024 Wellness for Lawyers Forum, the Honourable Chief Justice Anne Ferguson said what many of us are thinking – that ignoring these other factors is “just paying lip service to wellbeing”.

The landmark study by Cadieux et al. (2022) found that organisational risk factors had a greater impact on mental health than resources. This explains why wellbeing initiatives are consistently overridden by business model and cultural barriers. Organisational risk factors found in several studies to be most harmful include billable hour pressures, a culture of overwork, a hyper-competitive ‘alpha’ environment, and excessive focus on profit over people. These correlate with higher levels of perceived stress, psychological distress, depressive symptoms, and burnout. But the VLSB+C’s Lawyer Wellbeing Project report highlighted the impact of acculturation, which respondents said, “… involved learning that they should not prioritise their personal wellbeing and that any failure to cope with pressures was a result of their personal weaknesses.” This prevailing stigma plus the fear of judgement and career repercussions sadly still prevents many from seeking much-needed support.

The verdict is in

Despite overwhelming evidence linking employee wellbeing to business productivity and success, employers still struggle to move beyond rhetoric to functional implementation. But there is hope. For, even in the context of stubborn industry-wide barriers, some law firms and organisations are already bucking the trend.

Those breaking through wellbeing barriers are doing so by living their policies and backing them with appropriate resources, like the VLSB+C’s Wellbeing Guidelines for Legal Workplaces (Schrever, 2025) and regular, ongoing access to expert mental health support. They’re addressing individual, organisational, and systemic factors to develop holistic, effective wellbeing programs. They’re living their stated wellbeing values and authentically supporting their people to do the same. It is possible to remove the systemic and institutional barriers, even if it’s just one office at a time. By redefining the context, we can shift perceptions and create a culture where wellbeing becomes business as usual. And that’s how we break the stalemate on wellbeing in law.

References

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