A career in law comes with both challenges and opportunities
The Legal Environment
A career in law can be exciting, rewarding and challenging. It also comes with unique pressures and stresses. You may find yourself putting large amounts of energy, time and focus on finding solutions to complex issues and meeting others’ needs – clients, managers, colleagues, courts – but this may come at great personal cost.
We appreciate that working in the legal profession can include:
- An intense route to entry into the legal profession
- Needing to navigate complex power dynamics
- A constantly competitive environment
- Long hours that may lead to a conflict between work and home life
- Keeping up with a rapid pace of change
- Pressure for more billable hours and worry about what work is considered billable
- Extensive client demands
Research demonstrates that those very personality traits that make great legal professionals such as being conscientious, driven, self-sufficient and having high expectations can also make them more vulnerable to burnout and other psychological difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and addictions.
The 2021 Life in Law report commissioned by the charity LawCare identified that 69% of legal professionals experienced mental ill health in the 12 months prior to the survey but only half of them had talked about it at work for fear of damaging their career.
Find out more about how we can support you:
