Extrapolating from interviews with 37 persons across the spectrum of the profession, including law students, junior and senior solicitors, barristers, current and retired judicial officers, the report’s author, Dr Michelle Brady found that the drives of poor wellness in law are “complex and some appear to be deeply rooted in legal culture”.

Dr Brady – who is a research fellow at The University of Sydney Business School and an adjunct senior research fellow in sociology at the University of Melbourne – made four key findings: firstly, that legal professionals are “acculturated early in their career into a professional culture that frequently made it very difficult for the average individual to achieve wellbeing”.

“This culture began in law school, where most participants recalled a culture of overwork and stress,” she wrote.

Secondly, there are numerous cultural and institutional factors that prevent improvements in wellbeing across the board in law, Dr Brady continued.

“These barriers included a widespread culture of accepting bullying or poor managerial training. Women and those from minority groups described even more intense barriers to wellbeing, involving being subject to sexual harassment, sexist or racist comments, or both,” she wrote.

“However, both male and female respondents identified one of the key overriding problems as sexism and the dominance of a particular kind of ‘alpha male’ culture.”

However, the third major finding from the report was that legal professionals appear to be positive about the direction of change that has occurred in recent years, with optimism about the conversations being had about workplace wellbeing in law.

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“Many mentioned that wellbeing had moved from being ‘unmentionable’ to a normalised part of discussions. Respondents suggested that while the legal field has not yet embraced a systemic approach to the wellbeing of its professionals, there is increasing momentum towards this goal,” Dr Brady noted.

Fourth, and finally, respondents had various suggestions for how best wellness levels can be improved across the profession, including but not limited to more comprehensive assistance programs, increased collaboration with researchers, better promotion of counselling and debriefing programs and reforms to court practices.

Reflecting on the report’s findings, Dr Brady concluded that change will be “sometimes slow” in the wake of aforementioned barriers to change.

“However, the overall direction of current change appears to be positive and there [are] a strong desire and momentum for further improvement within at least some parts of the legal profession,” she posited.

“Now is an appropriate time to start testing and trialling new initiatives to support the wellbeing of legal professionals.”

The full report is available on VLSBC’s website.