Back when LawCare began in 1997, it is fair to say that it was difficult for anyone, let alone legal professionals, to get any form of emotional support. Certainly, no one was really talking about mental health and wellbeing at work. As we head into Mental Health Awareness Week (9-15 May) in our 25th anniversary year, we have come a long way in how we view and talk about mental health, but there is still much for all of us to do.

Elizabeth Rimmer

Elizabeth Rimmer

Past

LawCare has its origins in the Lawyers Support Group (LSG), a group of lawyers from all areas of the profession in recovery from alcohol addiction. Formed in 1983, the group met regularly in London. In 1995, partly prompted by a letter from the group to the Law Society Gazette, the group caught the attention of Robert Venables (Council member), Bronwen Still of Professional Standards and Charles Elly, the then vice president of the Law Society, who set up a working party to look into helping solicitors affected by alcohol misuse.

The idea to set up a body to offer support entirely independent of the Society was born, and SolCare, as it was then called, was established in April 1997. Barry Pritchard, a solicitor living in north Wales who was a member of the LSG and a recovering alcoholic with 13 years’ sobriety, became the first coordinator. He was given a modest grant and a surplus-to-requirements Law Society computer which he set up in a corner of the kitchen in his renovated farmhouse and started a helpline for lawyers with alcohol problems.

During that first year, he took 60 calls from lawyers. Members of LSG were among those who became the first volunteers, offering ongoing peer support to these callers. It quickly became apparent that the profession had needs other than just alcohol addiction and we were soon dealing with a variety of issues such as stress, depression, anxiety, bullying and disciplinary matters. Other professional bodies approached us to provide services to their members and by 2001 we changed our name to LawCare when the Bar Council arranged for barristers to be covered by LawCare’s services. We are now available to anyone working in the law, including support staff in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Our support spans the legal life from student to retirement.

Present

Fast forward to 2022, our 25th anniversary year, and LawCare has now helped well over 10,000 legal professionals since we began, has eight members of staff, receives funding from 19 legal organisations including the Law Society and is assisted by around 90 volunteers. Our support service now encompasses a helpline, email service and live online chat. We speak to people who are just having a bad day at work and others who have more longer-lasting problems, whether personal or professional.

The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is loneliness. We often hear from legal professionals who feel lonely and isolated, disconnected from work, their teams and their manager and who feel unable to talk to anyone about how they are feeling. Many spend so much time working they have little time to talk to family and friends, and they may feel others won’t understand the challenges of working in the law. This is where we are uniquely placed to help.  

One of the key parts of our service is our network of around 90 trained peer supporters; people who work in, or have worked in, the legal profession who may have been through difficult times themselves and can offer one-to-one support, friendship and mentoring over the phone to those who need it. They understand life in the law and all its challenges. Our peer supporters reflect the diversity of the legal profession and are drawn from all branches and career stages. They are from different age groups, genders and ethnic groups.

Future

Our hope at LawCare is that in another 25 years the legal profession will look entirely different where mental health and wellbeing are concerned. We would like to see a profession that values mental health and wellbeing and adopts working practices that support it. These can be simple to implement.

In our Life in the Law research into wellbeing we discovered a wide range of workplace measures available, from private health insurance to mental health training, regular catch-ups or appraisals. We would like to see more firms use different metrics to measure success instead of just productivity. We would like to see anyone with a problem be able to talk about it openly, without judgement and find support. We would like to see the profession deepen its recognition  that good legal professionals come from a range of backgrounds with differing motivations, values and concerns.

For our part, at LawCare we will continue to expand our support service so that we can help anyone who needs us in the legal profession, while at the same time working to influence the profession to change so that people can thrive.

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is loneliness. If you need to talk to someone contact us for free, confidential, emotional support on 0800 279 6888, email support@lawcare.org.uk or access online chat and other resources at www.lawcare.org.uk. We won’t ask for your roll number or details of your workplace and you don’t have to give your name.

Elizabeth Rimmer is CEO of LawCare