1  Why wellbeing?

An illustration showing a person sitting on a small suitcase with their head resting on one hand, surrounded by four large hands pointing toward them from different directions.

 

Research across multiple jurisdictions has indicated that mental ill-health and poor wellbeing are problems in legal workplaces (IBA, 2021). In the UK, there is a growing literature on the issue (LawCare, 2025; LawCare, 2021). Various reasons are cited for these issues with workplace wellbeing. These include:

  • the interactional demands of working with clients
  • the interactional demands of working with colleagues and others
  • unrealistic billing requirements
  • high caseloads
  • long working hours
  • dealing with emotionally challenging cases and evidence.

There are both ethical and financial imperatives to prioritise employee wellbeing. Doing so can prevent individual suffering and promote better productivity and lower absence and attrition rates.

It's accepted that we're all different and that people do need help. Some of our very best people have ended up having to take time off along the way because the pressures just got too much for them, and the more we can stop that happening the better we're doing as a job…

(Partner, Private Practice)

In addition, employers also owe legal duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (HSE, 2025). Some parts of the legal sector have also developed specific regulations and guidance, for example, the Solicitor Regulation Authority’s Workplace environment: risks of failing to protect and support colleagues (2023). This highlights the link between toxic workplace environments and potential regulatory breaches of the Codes of Conduct governing the solicitors’ profession.

The following video emphasises the importance of a healthy workplace.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 1  The importance of a healthy workplace

MATHIJS:
Developing healthy workplaces is, of course, really important because everyone wants to work in a healthy workplace. No one wants to work in a toxic or a really unpleasant workplace. And creating a healthy workplace is so important to employees, to employers.
RAJ:
And I think that getting the best from your staff and getting productive staff means that you have to work on developing psychologically healthy workplaces. If people are really stressed, they probably aren't making great decisions. If people are working in isolation a lot, which happens a lot in the legal profession, they don't necessarily get full appraisal of how rational that decision is. So there's that about how it can improve the function of the firm.
End transcript: Video 1  The importance of a healthy workplace
Download
Video 1  The importance of a healthy workplace
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Next, go to 1.1  Putting wellbeing into practice.

1.1  Putting wellbeing into practice