Psychological safety in the law

Lynn Pilkington explores psychological safety, why it's so important in the legal profession and how to measure and embed it.

I’m a woman with high standards. Unashamedly so. I expect excellence of myself, and others. You should always work hard and try your best. But when does ‘your best’ become ‘THE best’?

The legal profession is built on high standards, excellence and accountability. Often law attracts the ‘model students’, which is needed in a highly-respected and regulated profession. As a recovering perfectionist, people-pleaser, top-of-the-class type-person myself, admitting mistakes, being wrong and accepting help has not always been easy.

However, over time I have come to realise that something more important makes me stand out as an individual – my ability to learn, grow and keep going through adversity. 

What psychological safety has to do with failure

My life hasn’t exactly ‘gone to plan’. I’ve been forced to pivot, embrace growth and carve out my own path. Likewise, this sort of growth mindset underpins high-performing teams.

Research by Amy Edmondson, who first identified psychological safety in teams in 1999, showed that the highest-performing teams are not those that make the fewest mistakes, but those where people feel safe to share mistakes, learn from them and prevent them from happening again.

Her research was done in medical teams where learning from mistakes was crucial as lives were on the line. Yet, beyond that, higher levels of psychological safety are consistently linked to better performance across almost every metric.

What exactly is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is defined as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes”.

It’s not about being comfortable all the time. It is about creating the conditions where people can contribute fully. This is not about lowering standards and letting everyone say and do what they want. We are looking to create conditions of both high performance and high psychological safety as this is our learning zone.

Teams in the learning zone collaborate and innovate in pursuit of excellence. However, having high performance with low psychological safety in teams leads to what Edmonson calls, ‘dangerous silence’. People do not ask for help and are worried about making mistakes. There is minimal innovation and, when this continues for a period of time, it leads to high-pressure and burnout.

Why psychological safety matters in law

This has particular relevance in the legal profession. Recent LawCare data highlights a profession under pressure (Life in the Law 2025):

• 56.2% could see themselves leaving their workplace within five years

• 32.3% would not recommend law as a career

• 59.1% report poor mental wellbeing

• 50% experienced frequent anxiety in the last 12 months

• 78.7% regularly work beyond contracted hours.

In this context, psychological safety is not simply a “nice to have.” It creates the conditions where people can share their struggles, get support and sustain high performance over time.

Psychologically safe teams lean into the hard conversations and know how to embrace discomfort for long-term gain. Leaders role model accountability and gain return on investment through better retention of staff.

One of the challenges organisations face is that psychological safety is often assumed, rather than measured.

A solution for this is the Psychological Safety Index (PSI) scan - a four-step process that provides a structured, evidence-based way to understand how psychological safety is actually experienced across a team.

Keen to role model best practice in the sector, I recently conducted a PSI scan with a team at the Law Society of Scotland to explore the culture and surface challenges.

Psychological Safety Index process at the Law Society

Firstly, I conducted a 1:1 to understand the context of the organisation, goals and any key challenges. Then we hosted an information session for everyone in the organisation about the key psychological safety concepts and to explain the PSI process. This also built trust with the group and created the container for the work.

Select team members were sent the anonymous survey with seven short questions to assess how safe people felt across four key areas: inclusion and diversity; willingness to help; attitude to risk and failure; and open conversation.

Anonymous insight reports were shared and the data was analysed. Finally, we had a three-hour debrief as a team to explore results, surface themes and agree practical next steps.

By engaging in this process, we gained a clear picture of how the culture was experienced across different teams and if psychological safety was experienced differently across roles and identities.

As no one knew anyone else’s results, we were able to debrief in a safe environment, allowing people to share detail that they felt comfortable with. Through structured question prompts, small groups explored the key themes and reflected on any challenges that were experienced.

Importantly, we created a neutral safe space to really hear from individuals and their concerns. The conversation covered issues such as constructive challenge, challenges of collaboration and values being role-modelled through behaviour.

By creating a safe, structured space to have conversations that might not otherwise happen, the team was able to surface issues that were usually left unsaid, practise constructive challenge in real time and build confidence in setting boundaries and giving feedback. The learning will now be used to inform learning and development going forward, along with the leadership strategy.

Looking ahead

The Law Society of Scotland is committed to exploring how psychological safety can be improved, internally and in the wider legal sector.

There are clear opportunities in the profession, including: the opportunities presented by innovation versus the need for strict compliance; developing skills in listening, challenge, and boundary-setting; and exploring how legal teams can embrace growth mindsets.

Psychological safety is not about lowering expectations. We can all stay committed to excellence, while creating room for more curiosity and creativity. Environments that allow us to reflect on and learn from mistakes bring out the best in all of us.

Lynn Pilkington is an inclusion and engagement consultant with over 15 years' experience working across the public, private and third sectors in Scotland. Lynn specialises in disability inclusion, trauma-informed practice, and systemic change with a focus on turning policy into action. She regularly delivers talks and workshops on mental health, identity, accessibility and inclusive leadership. Lynn has engaged with the Law Society in many capacities over the years, from volunteering on committees to running training and follow-up sessions.