All is not well – time for a cultural reset?

Are we surprised there’s a wellbeing crisis in our profession? Not really. And covid-19 has made it worse. LawCare argues the organisational culture of the legal profession needs to change to tackle the ongoing problems of mental ill-health, bullying and harassment.

A substantial survey it carried out last year found that 69 per cent of lawyers had experienced mental ill-health in the previous year, while 22 per cent said they had experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Nearly three-quarters of respondents were women.

Who is affected?

Law is a stressful career – we all know that. But it still has a culture with strong echoes of an earlier era defined by men bearing stiff upper lips. Only, ever increasingly, that’s not what the profession looks like. Women and ethnic minority lawyers are pouring into the junior ranks, while the older (largely white male) generation is retiring. Look at the Bar – the number of female barristers increased by 1,026 between 2015 and 2021, compared to 194 men, according to the Bar Standards Board’s 2021 diversity report.

It’s going to take bold leadership to make law firms fit for the future but, with millennials closing in on the levers of power, a new breed of disruptors is coming. Is the profession ready?

Our latest report Legal Reset dentifies four key ‘pillars’ needed to drive a new culture, namely: the need to practise with purpose; embracing genuine flexible working; moving away from a partnership model fuelled by billable hours; and driving innovation through technology.

A radical reality?

A new future is possible.

We need to work out why we exist. It’s not enough any longer to say simply that firms exist to provide legal services. More is expected of organisations, especially those that make the kinds of profits many big firms do. We have to reset the profession’s values.

This is not just about being seen to do the right thing. If working in large firms is to remain an attractive proposition to Generation Z and those who follow behind, it has to offer more than just money.

How we work also needs to be reimagined. Remote working has become an accepted facet of working life post-covid 19, but it is not the same as flexible working: the number of employment tribunal decisions relating to flexible working increased 52 per cent last year, according to the law firm GQ Littler, with cases often brought alongside discrimination claims.