Attorney Well-being and Legal Professions

The current environment and atmosphere throughout the legal profession affects all involved persons, and is leading to lawyer burn out, significant mental health issues, and in worst cases, even suicide. Attorney wellbeing is not limited just to actual attorneys; all those involved in the legal profession are affected.

This introductory session is designed to introduce what is meant by the crisis in attorney wellbeing, why it matters, and how the IBA is planning to help its members tackle the root causes. The IBA has sent out surveys to its institutional and individual members through the Legal Projects Unit as part of this effort to gather data worldwide. Attendees are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys in advance of the session: https://www.ibanet.org/Mental-wellbeing-in-the-legal-profession.aspx.

With an overview from IBA President Horacio Bernardes Neto, this showcase program also represents the formal launch of the IBA’s Presidential Taskforce on Attorney Wellbeing, with a programme covering:

•how to define attorney wellbeing;

• the ability of lawyers to function in their professional environment;

• how this may change with the advent of mass remote working, and the impact this will have on attorney wellbeing in the future;

• what individuals and institutions are doing, and should be doing, to tackle the crisis; as well as

• the pioneering work that the taskforce co-chairs and IBA projects team have undertaken so far to gather information on these issues from around the world.

This event also marks the beginning of the IBA’s full-time engagement in projects and programming connected with the mental health and wellbeing of its members, acting as a signpost for major reports and initiatives to come, stretching to Paris 2021 and beyond. We hope therefore that you can join us as we start our global work to address these serious and life-threatening problems in our profession.