Four weeks left to support LawCare research project
Four weeks remain for legal professionals to take part LawCare's groundbreaking research study "Life in the Law".
The legal mental health charity hopes the project will show the impact of work culture and working practices on the wellbeing of legal professionals. Anyone working in the legal industry across the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, including those in training and support staff, can take part by completing an anonymous online questionnaire. Find it at at lifeinthelaw.org.uk – it is open until 31 December 2020
Results of the survey, which will be announced next year, will help LawCare improve the support available to legal professionals and drive change in the profession, as well as forming the basis for an academic paper.
The research seeks to understand the day-to-day realities of life in the law, using three academic research scales for burnout, psychological safety, and autonomy. It includes questions about sleep, workload, hours worked, self-care and working environment, as well as asking what wellbeing support is offered at work.
There are also questions about bullying, discrimination and harassment, sleep, alcohol, and experiences of stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition the research will examine how the legal profession has been affected by COVID-19.
Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, said: "This is the biggest ever piece of academic research into wellbeing in the legal industry in the UK and Ireland. We've been absolutely delighted with the number of responses so far, and we urge all legal professionals to make their voice heard and tell us about their life in the law. This will give us a clear picture of how the culture and practice of law affects mental health and help us not only to improve the support available to legal professionals, but drive long lasting change in legal workplaces so that people working in the law can thrive."
To develop the research study, LawCare teamed up with leading academics in the field, Dr Emma Jones (University of Sheffield), Professor Richard Collier (University of Newcastle), Caroline Strevens (reader in Legal Education, University of Portsmouth), and Lucinda Soon (solicitor and PhD researcher), along with Nick Bloy (executive coach and founder of Wellbeing Republic) and Kayleigh Leonie (LawCare trustee and solicitor).