“That kind of thing wouldn’t happen to me” was the attitude I held, until I no longer could. As those who are familiar with my journey know, that conceit and naivety came crashing down on me in rather spectacular fashion.

There were, to my great benefit, some brave and generous lawyers already fighting the good fight – most notably, those involved with the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation (now the Minds Count Foundation, which I am lucky to now serve as a board director for). The stories and lessons from those professionals have stuck with me over the years, and I am forever grateful that they helped me realise that I was not alone.

In today’s landscape, law students and young lawyers are very cognisant of the myriad professional and environmental risks and hazards that can and do have an adverse impact on one’s psychological and emotional wellbeing. For this, the legal profession deserves an enormous amount of credit, for raising awareness to the level that such health issues are no longer a niche or side issue – they are front and centre not only of a lawyer’s holistic self, but inextricably linked to one’s capacity to thrive as a practitioner.

This is not to say, however, that we, as a profession, have done enough. There remains, as numerous professionals observe, a bounty of embedded structures that serve to prolong, if not exacerbate, environments through which ill health can take hold.

Next-generation lawyers are doing their best, by and large, to prioritise self-care – both proactively and reactively – but the profession may well need to consider further systemic shifts, if we are to make further inroads in mitigating the still astronomical rates of psychological distress, anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation.

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The state of affairs

A recent study of 1,900 lawyers, spearheaded by Professor Julian Webb of Melbourne Law School and principal investigator Emerita Professor Vivien Holmes of the Australian National University, found that workplace culture has a negative effect on the wellbeing of half of respondents – with 18 per cent working in firms with a “poor” culture.

“We found poor culture was statistically associated with higher psychological distress, workplace incivility, and a lack of effective wellbeing supports such as flexible working, better workload management, and tailored counselling or employee assistance programs,” Webb said.

Holmes said: “Our study identifies a clear relationship between workplace culture, wellbeing and career intentions, with a third of participants reporting that they want to quit their firm, and one in 10 planning to leave the profession within a year.”

The International Bar Association has made similar findings, with a recent survey noting that nearly 50 per cent of lawyers have concerns regarding their firms’ ability to support their wellbeing.

Such findings appear, at least prima facie, to be somewhat incompatible with increased awareness of and support for lawyers’ wellness. However, as senior legal professionals have told this brand, it is necessary for the profession to acknowledge what isn’t working in addressing wellness issues in law. To some extent, next-gen lawyers are being forced to reshape wellbeing in their own eyes, potentially through the various workplace trends, such as mini-retirements.

As NSW Young Lawyers president Timothy Roberts noted, the exacting nature of legal practice can be both demanding and stressful, and “this is especially true for early-career lawyers, those within the first five years of practice, as they learn their new profession while maintaining their mental health and wellbeing”.

Such issues, he said, are of “particular concern” to Millennial and Gen Z entrants to the profession.

While they are more attuned to mental wellbeing than generations before, they often lack the practical support and leadership needed to navigate the pressures they face, Coaching Advocates co-founder Lara Wentworth reflected.

“Many are led by senior lawyers who were not trained to value or nurture wellbeing and may struggle to offer meaningful guidance in this area,” she said.

“In addition, junior lawyers today are juggling the pressure to build a credible digital presence, maintain visibility in competitive markets, and manage the rising cost of living, all while trying to prove themselves in a demanding profession.”

For lawyer and advocate Stefanie Costi, young lawyers are not just struggling to manage work and wellness. They are, she said, questioning whether the profession, as it stands, is sustainable for their long-term health and happiness.

“This issue is no longer just about stress or young lawyers not being ‘resilient’. It reflects deeper systemic challenges,” she said.

“If we do not address these concerns, we risk losing an entire generation to burnout and disillusionment. If the profession does not evolve, it will continue to lose talented individuals who are critical to its future.”

Or, as Queensland Young Lawyers president Jade Campbell said, in short, “individuals only have so much power to flourish in a broken system”.

Ongoing environmental issues

While most young lawyers “have a solid understanding of how to manage their own mental health, and take positive steps to do so”, Campbell mused, “their ability to do so largely depends on what area of law they’re in, what type of practice and the firm’s individual culture”.

“While mental health resources are improving, and work/life balance is more commonly discussed than in previous generations, genuine support within most law firms remains rare. Some young lawyers (below five years PQE) have left the profession due to early burnout. External factors like the cost of living and global events also contribute to psychological strain,” she said.

King & Wood Mallesons solicitor and Minds Count board director Margaret Cai agreed that buy-in for wellbeing remains inconsistent profession-wide: “Different subcultures often exist within law firms and organisations, and the degree of senior ‘buy-in’ for supporting mental health initiatives and creating a psychologically safe workplace varies.”

In some instances, she went on, “young lawyers are feeling isolated and engaging less with their colleagues – particularly if they are not part of structured or graduate cohorts”.

“There is also a desire among young lawyer cohorts for more spaces or platforms where they can speak candidly and receive genuine advice on how to navigate targets, hierarchical teams, and large workloads,” Cai said.

Greg de Moore, an associate professor of psychiatry at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital and another board director at Minds Count, supported this: “There is a tendency to feel that the talk about mental health can fall into a series of platitudes rather than concrete steps. Having said that, the young lawyers [I have spoken to] weren’t always sure what those concrete steps would be.”

Moreover, Cai continued, there is a “natural tension” between being responsible for prioritising your wellbeing and the desire to make a good impression and demonstrate that you are a team player.

“Young lawyers often look to the examples set by senior members of their teams for ‘permission’ on how proactively they can set personal boundaries,” she said.

Grace Oakley, the president of LIV Young Lawyers, also pointed out that emerging practitioners “are eager to please and climb the ladder, based on the ideals taught in law school and the competitive and traditionally hierarchical nature of the legal industry, which only serves to exacerbate the issues we see”.

Further, she said, “current geopolitical turmoil globally, cost of living and the move towards AI in our own industry have placed a lot of pressure on younger lawyers to perform better, more efficiently and be more effective at their jobs to justify their value”.

From Wentworth’s experience of coaching junior lawyers, most are bright, driven, and willing to learn.

However, she said, “they are also vulnerable to moments of doubt, where negative interactions with their mentors and leaders can deeply shake their confidence and leave a lasting mark on their sense of self”.

“As a result of our collective consciousness about the need for self-care vibrating higher than ever before, many junior lawyers have been exposed to ‘horror stories’ of burnout, depression and bullying in the profession, which, in my view, has made them hyper-vigilant and on the lookout for the such consequences, causing many of them to consider an early exit from the profession at the first sign of the possibility that this might become a reality for them,” she said.

Increased support and reasons for optimism

None of this is to say, of course, that there aren’t good things being done across the profession. De Moore pointed to several green shoots he sees across the profession.

“There is a reduction in the boozy world of the previous generation of largely male lawyers. The young lawyers I [have spoken] to were all aware of EAP and how to access counsellors. Some firms had in-firm counsellors. The introduction of ‘Mental Health Champions’ to large firms is seen as helpful.

If representative, de Moore said, such trends “indicate a significant shift in the right direction”.

Roberts also noted that member associations, like the Law Society of NSW, offer a range of wellbeing support services, such as the Solicitors Outreach Service in NSW. Wellbeing sessions are also a regular feature, and new resources are “being developed to better support the evolving needs of solicitors at every stage of their careers”, he said.

Most next-gen lawyers, Campbell added, accept that having time for activities and relationships outside of work is vital in maintaining positive mental health.

“Some find relief in community groups, creative hobbies, and reducing social media use. Staying informed is important, but boundaries are crucial to prevent information overload, “she said.

David Field, another Minds Count board director and Canon Oceania chief legal counsel, said his impression from interactions with law students and young lawyers is that they are also “far more willing” to say when they are struggling mentally.

“It certainly feels like we have made significant progress over the last couple of decades in overcoming a lot of the stigma that used to attach to lawyers signalling vulnerability,” he said.

Moreover, Oakley said, “the Gen Z lawyers that we see entering the profession now have mental health and their own psychosocial safety as one of their non-negotiables in the workplace, whereby they recognise that to show up for their team and their clients, they need to be at their best”.

“I think this is a positive shift for the better,” she said.

Certainly, such a line in the sand from next-gen lawyers is encouraging – if embedded structures won’t willingly shift (at least, not fast enough), then the lawyers within them can respond accordingly.

To read Lawyers Weekly’s top 10 wellness-related stories from 2024, click here.