Is it Legal? How Much Stress is the Legal Profession Under?
I have worked in the legal profession and have seen firsthand how stressful it can be, particularly for the fee earning staff. Legal solutions firm, LexisNexis, published a report in 2019 that highlighted just how much stress many lawyers feel they are under, and how this affects their mental health. Fast forward four years and the professional climate has, if anything, got more demanding and stressful.
The Bellwether Report 2019: Stress in the Legal Profession interviewed 176 solicitors and the overarching findings showed:
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- 75% felt that stress or mental wellbeing is a major issue
- More than a third experienced stress at work
- 93% of junior lawyers had experienced stress at work
- 25% thought more could be done to support them.
Many surveyed reported severe or extreme levels of stress but only 20% had told their employer. Almost 60% considered taking time off, but didn’t. The governmental Stevenson / Farmer Review of the same year looked at how employers dealt with mental health and found that people in the legal profession were surviving, but not thriving. And that’s not a long term solution.