Blogs

Who is Responsible for a Lawyer’s Mental Health?

By Steven Ram posted 27-10-2021 18:13

  

Such a great discussion on #Fightclub for #Lawyers on #Clubhouse tonight on the topic of ’who is responsible for a lawyer’s mental health -the employer, the regulator or the lawyer themselves’?
 
Discussion topics included:

  • why is there so much stigma around mental health and wellness in the law?
  • what are the underlying factors that cause lawyers to ‘hide’ their mental health issues?
  • is it the fear of having their practising certificate cancelled, or the stigma that they are perceived as ‘weak’ by their peers, that causes the fear of mental health disclosure?
  • do lawyers need to be collectively ‘debriefed’ as a regular employment practice?
  • would the regulator mandating a ‘debriefing’ process help with overcoming the stigma associated with mental health?
  • has covid created a greater focus on normalising ‘mental health’ disclosures BUT is it just tokenism?
  • should the focus be on prevention?
  • how do we incentivise partners in law firms to care about mental health?
  • how do we make lawyers ‘mentally fit’ rather than just ‘mentally well’ or ‘healthy’?
  • how do we differentiate between 'mental injuries' and 'mental illnesses’?
  • could having ’self compassion’ assist in overcoming mental health challenges?
  • should mental health been seen as a OH&S issue and law firms be treated like high risk construction worksites?
  • should mental health in lawyers be viewed through the lens of high performing athletes?
  • could regulation on the maximum amount of hours a lawyer could work per week help?
  • OR is it just too hard to make law firms actually care about mental health?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please comment below!
  
Thank you to my co-host, @Fionn Bowd, to our guest co-host, Lara Wentworth, and to all our attendees who joined in the discussion, in particular Daniel YimChristian van den BoschJens NäsströmSapphire P. and Dale Stevens.

Join us next Tuesday night (19/10) at 830pm (ADST) to hear lawyers and legal professionals from around the world discuss controversial topics in law! For our next battle we will be joined by Anna Lozynski to discuss the topic 'are female lawyers better at leading innovation?'

If you would like to nominate a controversial topic for us to ‘fight’, please DM @Fionn Bowd, Peter Davies, Scott Simmons or myself, @Karen Finch

#LawyersFightClub

#Events​​​​​​​​​​
0 comments
9 views

Permalink