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Preventing burnout in the legal sphere

This year’s Law Society Skillnet Wellbeing Summit 2024 is a sellout, organisers have confirmed.

The popular event, on 15 October, at 2.30 pm, has over 1000 registrations to hear speakers and topics focused on culture and preventing burnout. 

The Law Society Skillnet Wellbeing Summit is designed in partnership with Law Society Psychological Services.

It will cover:

• Introduction to burnout,
• Understanding its signs, symptoms, psychological and physiological effects,
• Recognising signs and symptoms,
• Impact of chronic stress,
• Physical toll of burnout,
• Defining burnout as a workplace phenomenon,
• Role of organisational culture, leadership and ethics in preventing burnout in the law,
• Impact of billable-hour targets, client expectations and workload management on mental health,
• Practical changes to policies, procedures that can create a healthy workplace environment.

Symptoms

Using technology to help to reduce symptoms of burnout will also be discussed:

• Emerging technologies in mitigating stresses,
• Communities/peer support networks,
• Collaboration,
• Knowledge sharing  and reducing loneliness and isolation – teams working more remotely.

Speakers

• Robbie Cassidy, physiotherapist,
• Dr Emma Clarke, PhD University of Canterbury, New Zealand in industrial and organizational psychology,
• Adam Dehaty, Law Society Psychological Services,
• Patricia Gannon, founder Platforum9 social audio app for lawyers,
• Dr Aura Goldman, sport and exercise psychologist,
• Ronan Harrington, resilience expert,
• Paul Hughes, psychotherapist,
• Dr Noel Kennedy, psychiatrist,
• Katrina McLoughlin, ClanWilliam Institute,
• Adrian Mulryan, Invesco Investment Management,
• Michael Quinlan, chair Law Society Professional Wellbeing Steering Group and past Law Society President.

Meanwhile, Law Society’s head of Psychological Services Antoinette Moriarty also features on a newly-released International Bar Association (IBA) podcast on mental health in the legal profession.

A member of the IBA Professional Wellbeing Commission, Antoinette Moriarty converses with Jeff Davis (Chief Legal Officer, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan).

Strategies

The duo discuss mental health and strategies lawyers can use to cultivate strong mental health practices that support their professional and personal lives.

The podcasts are now live and now  available to access.

This podcast series first appeared on the website of the Professional Wellbeing Commission of the International Bar Association, and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London.