The International Bar Association (IBA) has embarked on a global project aimed at addressing the mental wellbeing of legal professionals around the world. To lead this work, IBA President Horacio Bernardes Neto has convened the IBA Wellbeing Taskforce, led by IBA Bar Issues Commission Officers, with assistance from the IBA Legal Policy & Research Unit.
The key initial phase of the project consisted of two global surveys: one for individual lawyers, the other for law firms and other legal institutions, including bar associations, law societies and in-house legal departments.
The main findings of those surveys can be found below, along with the contact details of members of the Wellbeing Taskforce.
When I became president of the IBA in 2019, I made addressing mental wellbeing within the legal profession one of my main priorities. I had become increasingly concerned with all too frequent reports of substance abuse, severe depression, and suicide within the profession. Little did I or any of us know of the events that were to come. The devastating effects of depression, stress, addiction, and other such attacks on our wellbeing may have preceded the Coronavirus pandemic, but there is no question that it has exacerbated their impact.Read more
Horacio Bernardes Neto President, International Bar Association (2019-2020)
IBA Wellbeing Surveys: Main Findings
Individuals
The IBA surveys utilise a wellbeing index score, created using the same methodology as the World Health Organization (WHO) for its WHO-5 index.
This index is created by asking respondents to comment on how often they have felt the following over the previous two weeks:
Calm and relaxed; cheerful and in good spirits; active and vigorous; refreshed and rested; and that their daily life was filled with interest.
A value was then assigned to each possible option based on their answer:
All of the time = 5; Most of the time = 4; More than half the time = 3; Less than half the time = 2; Some of the time = 1; At no time = 0.
The 0-5 scores from each statement were then added together to give a raw total of between 0-25 per individual. This was then multiplied by 4, to give a total out of 100.
This number represents the wellbeing index score for each individual respondent.
The WHO-5 average wellbeing index score for the general population is 75.
For respondents to the IBA survey, it was 51.
This slide shows how individual wellbeing index scores vary across different groups. Notably, the score for female respondents was significantly below that for males. Similarly, younger respondents’ scores were lower than those of their older colleagues. There were also lower scores seen among those who identify as an ethnic minority, or who have a disability.
In this slide, the results of the wellbeing index scores are split between type of profession, size of workplace, and also regional responses. The Asia-Pacific forum recorded the lowest overall wellbeing index score, as did associates and advocates (in stark contrast to partners), and those working in law firms with between 51-100 partners.
In this slide, the wellbeing index scores of male and female respondents are broken down by profession and compared in more detail. Notably, only barristers record a higher wellbeing index score for females as opposed to males.
Following on from the previous slide, this chart compares the wellbeing index scores of males and females on the basis of age and special characteristics. Once again, the male score is consistently higher than the female, with even larger gaps seen in the case of ethnic minorities and those with disabilities.
These graphs show the most commonly cited reasons given by respondents for why their work has a negative impact on their wellbeing, divided by age group. As highlighted in the slide, issues around workload appear to remain constant throughout respondents’ careers, whereas concerns about work/life balance and physical and mental health issues have a disproportionate impact on the young.
Respondents were asked which of the following issues they had experienced in their daily working lives. Competing demands, long hours, and unrealistic time pressures were the most commonly cited problems. While a majority (69%) had not experienced harassment or bullying, the remaining 31% did report experiencing such behavior seldomly, regularly, or all/most of the time, echoing findings from the IBA’s existing work on bullying and sexual harassment in the legal workplace.
When experienced, harassment and bullying have the greatest negative impact on respondents’ wellbeing, followed by unrealistic time pressures, the demand to hit targets, and the inability to take breaks.
Here, the impact of negative wellbeing caused by work on different age groups is broken down further. In general, these problems disproportionately affect the young, although fatigue, disrupted sleep, and anxiety are experienced by a large proportion of all age groups. Notably, one in ten under 30s has experienced suicidal thoughts as a result of work.
The disproportionate impact of negative wellbeing caused by work on those with disabilities can be seen more clearly in this graph. Similarly, issues caused by negative wellbeing at work are more prevalent in associates, female respondents, ethnic minorities, and members of the North American Regional Forum, when compared to the overall survey average.
Institutions
The disproportionate impact of negative wellbeing caused by work on those with disabilities can be seen more clearly in this graph. Similarly, issues caused by negative wellbeing at work are more prevalent in associates, female respondents, ethnic minorities, and members of the North American Regional Forum, when compared to the overall survey average.
Although 82% of institutional respondents say that the wellbeing of their employees and members is a priority, very few have measures in place to assess the impact of any wellbeing initiatives they may have, and only 16% provide wellbeing training for managers or those in senior positions. This is problematic, given the issues surrounding workload, time pressures and bullying highlighted in the individual survey.
When asked about how their employers had responded to the issues that lead to negative wellbeing at work, it is notable that in terms of workload, support, and harassment/bullying, most respondents replied with ‘highly’ or ‘somewhat ineffective’. In no circumstances did the majority of respondents claim that their employer’s response had been ‘highly’ or ‘even somewhat effective’.
When asked if employers should do more about wellbeing, once again there were pronounced differences in response depending on the sex, minority status, disability, and age of the respondent.
Here, the problem surrounding lack of training for senior members of staff is laid bare in more detail. While a majority appear to be involved in the implementation of wellbeing policies, very few are receiving wellbeing training as a result of, or before, their implementation.
This table reinforces the broader recommendations emerging from the survey data, and which form the core of the IBA wellbeing taskforce’s plan of action. The main areas of focus requested by employees were increased levels of openness around discussing wellbeing in the workplace, and better resources for wellbeing management and improvement in the workplace, especially for those in senior positions.
Yet just as the pandemic has posed challenges for our profession and ways of life, so it also presents opportunities for us to change for the better in the future. These are the issues I want to share with you, as we look to gather information about the mental wellbeing of lawyers from around the world. With this information, we can start to assemble some of the best thinking and solutions available, and present them as part of an ongoing effort to help our profession. By doing so, we help not only ourselves, but also our clients, and the health of those individuals and institutions tasked with upholding the rule of law.
To do this, we have launched two global wellbeing surveys, both at the individual and the institutional level. Together, these studies will provide us with a vital global snapshot of our profession. I sincerely hope that they will lead not only to the sharing of best practice guides, but also to starting conversations in those parts of the world where mental wellbeing is not spoken about so openly, and lawyers perhaps find themselves suffering in silence.
Horacio Bernardes Neto President, International Bar Association (2019-2020)
Sara Carnegie
Sara is an employed barrister with over 20 years’ experience in the criminal justice and public policy sector. The majority of her career has been spent working for government, most recently as Director of Strategic Policy at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Sara has led the legal teams on two public inquiries (The Baha Mousa Inquiry and the Detainee Inquiry) and spent several years as a legal and policy advisor to the Senior Presiding Judge and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
She has sat in a judicial capacity on the Council of the Inns of Court Disciplinary Tribunal between 2013 and 2020 and was appointed as a reviewer for the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel in 2019.
She currently heads up the Legal Policy and Research Unit at the International Bar Association, working across all Committees and Divisions to lead and support a wide range of IBA projects. This frequently involves collaboration with external stakeholders, including the United Nations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Union institutions and World Bank. Current projects cover business and human rights, anti-corruption, rule of law, cybersecurity and mental well-being in the legal profession.
George Artley
As an undergraduate George studied history at the University of Oxford, before training as a commercial lawyer at Macfarlanes LLP in the City of London. He then returned to Oxford for graduate study, where he undertook a DPhil. In legal history, focusing on the political origins of the rule of law and judicial independence in England.
As BIC Project Lawyer, his role is to assist the BIC in co-ordinating and implementing projects that exclusively support member bar associations and law societies, including capacity assistance projects to developing bars, BIC Policy Committee projects, and projects involving the BIC International Trade & Legal Services committee.
Aviva Rotenberg
Aviva Rotenberg is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Canadian Bar Association, overseeing national programs including CBA Well-Being, the CBA Legal Futures Initiative and the organization’s response to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. She also speaks and consults on international capacity building and professional development projects. Aviva holds degrees in political science and humanities, a law degree, and an MBA.
Tracy L. Kepler is Risk Control Consulting Director for CNA’s Lawyers Insurance Program where she designs/develops content and distribution of risk control initiatives relevant to the practice of law. Prior to her role at CNA, she served as the Director of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility, providing national leadership in developing and interpreting standards and scholarly resources in legal and judicial ethics, professional regulation, professionalism, client protection, professional liability and attorney well-being. Tracy also has nearly 20 years of experience as a regulatory/disciplinary litigator with the USPTO and the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission. She is a past president of the National Organization of Bar Counsel, a Board member of the Institute for Well-Being in Law (formerly the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being) and is a co-author of its Report & Recommendations. She also teaches legal ethics/professional responsibility at Loyola School of Law School (Chicago), American University Washington College of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.
Mary is the Managing Partner of Swaab, a Sydney based mid-sized commercial law firm. In this role, Mary leads by example, with an authentic leadership style and a focus on promoting and protecting the well-being of people in the legal profession.
In 2019, Mary received the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year award in the category of "Wellness Advocate of the Year".
Mary is also the practice group leader of a dynamic team of property lawyers at Swaab, she is a NSW Law Society accredited specialist in property law and was recommended by Doyles in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 as a leading NSW lawyer in Property, Real Estate and Leasing.
Mary's community work includes sitting on the Board of the Minds Count Foundation (formerly the Tristian Jepson Memorial Foundation), a not-for-profit organisation which has been advocating for wellness in the legal industry for over 10 years.
Bree Buchanan is founding co-chair of the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-being and is a co-author of its groundbreaking 2017 report, The Path to Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. In December 2020, she was appointed Board President of the newly formed Institute for Well-being in Law, a new nonprofit dedicated to bringing about systemic change in the legal profession such that considerations of well-being become central to the practice. Ms. Buchanan served as chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs (2017-2020) and as director of the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program from 2013 until retirement in 2018. She is now Senior Advisor with Krill Strategies, Inc., providing consultation on issues related to lawyer well-being and impairment for major legal employers. Ms. Buchanan is co-host of the podcast, The Path to Well-Being Law, and has shared her own story of recovery as a featured guest on podcasts - as well as articles published - in the United States, Canada and the U.K.
Desi is an Australian Legal Practitioner and Mentor at Leo Cussen, Centre for Law, Victoria, Australia. She was admitted as a solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2005 and has practiced in mid-tier, suburban and private firms. In 2013, Desi completed a Graduate Diploma of Education with a focus on legal studies and literature. As a certified mental health first aid trainer, Desi is a strong advocate for mental health, the well-being of new lawyers and the profession as a whole. She regularly presents at conferences in Australia as an ambassador for mentally healthy workplaces. In 2019 she contributed to a book chapter on time perspective in relation to wellbeing and productivity in Lexis Nexis’ ‘Wellness for Law: Making Wellness Core Business.’ Most recently Desi joined the International Bar Association’s Wellbeing Taskforce charged with tackling the problem of poor mental health among the world’s lawyers and in promoting policies and working practices to help to improve wellbeing within the legal profession.
Richard heads up byrne dean’s mental health work and he is also involved in its dispute resolution work.
Before byrne·dean he spent 20 years as an employment lawyer in the city of London. He trained and became a partner at London firm Gouldens before that firmed merged with Jones Day where he stayed for a few years post-merger. Wanting to get into management, he joined London firm Speechly Bircham where he led the employment law team and served on the firm’s management committee.
In 2011 he experienced a serious mental breakdown, which resulted in time in hospital and a lengthy recovery process. While life shattering on pretty much every level, the experience forced him to think more about himself and how he reacts and responds to the world, a greater curiosity perhaps. That led him to look at other people in a different way, with that same curiosity, wanting to understand why people do what they do, and to help them to that understanding, both to support them in their work and wider lives, avoid and resolve conflict, but also to promote mental health and help people avoid the experiences he had. Joining byrne·dean in 2013 was the obvious platform to enable that!
He spends a lot of his time delivering training in an increasingly global classroom and help clients think more strategically about mental health and wellbeing withing their organisations. He co-chairs the steering committee of the Lord Mayor of London’s This is Me campaign which is all about using personal story telling to reduce the stigma around mental illness. This was the catalyst for him publishing his first book, This too will pass – Anxiety in a Professional World, which came out in November 2018.
He leads byrne dean’s work on the ground-breaking Mindful Business Charter which is a cross business initiative looking to reduce the unnecessary stress in the ways we work within and between our organisations so as to create healthier and more effective ways of working.
Outside of work, when not taxiing kids about, or watching them perform on stage or field, he is most likely to be cycling, cooking, or spending time in his haven in the Charente countryside in rural France.
Commissioner of International Relations at the Mental Health Institute of Legal Professions; PhD Candidate in Private Law at Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Lawyer
Tomás Gabriel García-Micó is one of the founding members of the Mental Health Institute of Legal Professions in Spain, and since June 2020, the first holder of the office of Commissioner of International Relations of the same institution. Practising Lawyer since June 2016, Tomás Gabriel García-Micó has practised in the private sector (in one of the Big 4 Spanish law firms) and as a self-employed lawyer. Currently, he is taking the PhD in Private Law at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona, with a dissertation about the risks that new medical technologies pose to the current legal systems, aside from that, he has published his research and has taken part in several research projects. More information about his publications and research can be seen here. He has done two international research stays, one at the China-EU School of Law (September 2019) and the second at the Dickson Poon School of Law - King's College London (January-April 2020).
Isibor is a Climate Reality Leader trained by former US Vice President Al Gore, and currently working with the Central Bank of Nigeria as a Legal Officer. He has dedicated over 7 years of his relevant professional experience to community service, legal aid sensitization, civic activism, diversity inclusion and mental wellbeing.
He is committed to strengthening the initiative for lawyers to provide Pro Bono legal services to the most vulnerable people in the society. Therefore, he seeks the opportunity to create a hub for youth development agencies, religious groups, and civil society to work together. He believes that giving back to society and creating awareness for mental wellness should be our priority because healthy lawyers make a robust judicial architecture.
Satyajit is a dual-qualified lawyer (India and England) with over 17 years' work experience in top law practices, and is now the Vice President, Assistant GC & Head of India Legal at EXL Service, a NASDAQ listed company focussing on operations management and analytics. Satyajit's work encompasses M&A and general corporate matters, labour & employment laws, contracting, IT and privacy laws. Satyajit was recognized as one of India's best M&A/ Corporate Lawyer in the years 2017 and 2018. Other than work, Satyajit enjoys mentoring young and upcoming lawyers. He is currently the Membership Officer for IBA's Asia Pacific Forum. Recently, Satyajit co-founded Samvedna, a non-profit initiative focussing on mental health & wellness for legal professionals.
John T. Berry serves as The Florida Bar’s Legal Division Director supervising the lawyer regulation and professionalism efforts.
Prior to returning to The Florida Bar, he served as Executive Director of the State Bar of Michigan from 2000 - 2006. Before joining the State Bar of Michigan in November 2000, he served as Director of the Center of Professionalism at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. He has held previous positions as Assistant Executive Director of the State Bar of Arizona (1998-2000), and as Staff Counsel and Legal Division Director of The Florida Bar (1983-1998). Staff Counsel duties included supervision of lawyer regulation, unauthorized practice of law, ethics, professionalism and the advertising departments. He served for seven years as Florida Assistant State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Fraud Division, Orlando, Florida handling white collar and organized crime cases.
Mr. Berry was trained and approved by the Florida Supreme Court as an instructor for judicial education. He is a frequent lecturer throughout the nation and the world, on ethics and professionalism. In addition, Mr. Berry is responsible for the establishment of The Florida Bar’s and the State Bar of Arizona’s Professional Enhancement Program (ethics school) where he participated as a main lecturer. He also was a member of over 15 consulting teams to other states evaluating their ethics and professionalism efforts. He served as liaison for the State Bar of Arizona to the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission and ABA Multijurisdictional Practice Commission.
Mr. Berry served as chair of the ABA’s Professionalism Committee (2003-2006) and has served on the McKay Commission that evaluated lawyer regulation nationwide. He also has served on the ABA’s Discipline Committee, Model Definition of Law Task Force and Bioethics Committee.
Banke Olagbegi-Oloba is a Nigerian lawyer, Researcher, Law teacher, Mediator and Arbitrator.
She currently lectures at the Faculty of Law, Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State Nigeria. She is the immediate past Treasurer (2018-2020) of the Nigerian Bar Association; American Bar Association Section of International Law's liaison to the Nigerian Bar; current Secretary & Diversity and Inclusion officer, IBA Academic and Professional Development Committee, Governing Council member, Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC) in Nigeria and pioneer chair, ICMC Akure, Ondo State Branch.
She has published peer reviewed articles in several local and international journals. She has attended, facilitated and presented in several local and international conferences.
Her research and practice areas include International Law, Arbitration and Mediation amongst others.
Manel Atserias Luque graduated in Law from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain). While studying in his third year, he was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in a very severe condition. Due to this situation, he had to prolong his studies for two more years between medication and therapies.
Later, he obtained the Advanced Master in Legal Sciences from the same university. During these studies, he had the opportunity to carry out an academic stay at the University College Dublin Sutherland School of Law within the framework of the "Comparative, International, and European Law" Exchange Program for almost four months. At the same time, he was a member of the European Law Student's Association, participating in the ELSA Spain Law Review.
Manel's professional experience has been atypical. Immediately after graduating, he handled a high-profile case on sports licences involving thousands of basketball coaches (case #NoPayNoCoach) for his own affairs. Later, he was a legal counsel for a third sector entity related to mental health. Among other issues, he has analyzed human rights from the perspective of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
After that, he founded the Instituto de Salud Mental de la Abogacía - Mental Health Institute of Legal Professions (ISMA-MHILP) in Spain. For