In depth: How law firms can save stressed staff from themselves

Workplace stress and burnout are commonly cited as reasons for lawyers’ mental health struggles. Often the discussion is packaged in terms of firms placing unrealistic expectations on staff. But could it be that some firms are actually unable to restrain lawyers from placing themselves under an ever-increasing burden?

Lawyers may have come across colleagues practically boasting about pulling all-nighters, or missing birthdays or anniversaries to close a particular deal. But can such dedication turn into obsession, and is that healthy? The Gazette has heard of one example from a national firm where the wife of a solicitor signed off work from stress had to beg the firm to close down his email account because he could not stop himself checking. No doubt many readers will be able to recall similar cases of colleagues who could not step away.

Burnout is regularly cited as a problem by callers to the charity LawCare. It found that 28% of lawyers believed they needed to be available to clients 24/7 and 65% said they checked emails outside working hours to keep up.

Perusal of a well-known recruitment website reveals how firms are trying to combat such self-inflicted damage through hiring external resource managers.

One such advertisement from a leading global firm offered a salary of £65,000 a year to a work allocation manager. Applicants must exhibit ‘strong strategic and operation skills’ to make resourcing decisions. Another advertisement for a resource manager – posted by a ‘prestigious’ international law firm – sought a specialist who can be ‘responsible for balancing the needs of the clients, business, and the career aspirations and wellbeing of the resources’.

At least two firms have told the Gazette that these new hires are intended to take work away from people as much as allocate it. The idea being that lawyers oblivious of the hours they are putting in can be saved from themselves and have work wrenched away from them before they cannot cope any longer.

Simon McCrum, law firm adviser and author of The Perfect Legal Business, urges firms to intervene where lawyers are taking on too much. ‘Active intervention is needed in extreme workaholic, “burning the candle at both ends” cases,’ he says. ‘That is a risk to the lawyer’s wellbeing, it is a risk to client service levels, it is a risk to the firm’s professional indemnity policy, and it starves junior lawyers of the experience they need to develop.

‘The firm can intervene culturally by rewarding partners for team performance rather than individual performance.’

Dan Warburton, a business consultant to law firms, says that partners often feel like they have no choice but to take on too much work. ‘They’ve spent years building their firm and fear losing what they’ve built or their position, but they were never taught how to delegate their workload effectively or how to manage others effectively,’ he adds. ‘When associates take on too much work, they are either being manipulated by the partner with some kind of fear tactic to do the work, or they are particularly ambitious and want to become partners.’

Sceptics say it is not up to firms to tell lawyers how to manage their work-life balance, pointing out that taking work away might be viewed as a ploy by other partners to secure lucrative clients. Clients too may not want firms to pass on work when they are comfortable working with a particular lawyer.

Nicola Jones, a business psychologist and former barrister, agrees that lawyers need to be actively managed but not through having their workload controlled by a third party. She says: ‘Firms cannot build a culture of long hours and presenteeism, and then effectively punish people for conforming to expectation by denying them agency. In many cases, workload and personal/professional identity are interwoven.

‘If someone is at risk of burnout, denying them agency may be experienced as an attack on their identity. Far from “fixing” the problem, it is likely to be exacerbated.’

The consequences of lawyers taking on more work than they can deal with are serious. An equity partner with an international firm, a mother of two, died last September after being hit by a train. She had reportedly been working up to 18 hours a day on a deal but her manager said she had raised no concerns about stress.

For many firms, the solution is to step in and prevent workloads from becoming unmanageable. Convincing those you are trying to help remains perhaps the biggest challenge of all.

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