Late to the Party? Legal Practice and Wellbeing

Abstract

This chapter discusses the concepts of mental health and wellbeing, with a particular emphasis on their conceptualisation within the legal profession. It explores how the law (and the legal profession) have traditionally prized a rigid and narrow form of analytical reasoning which excludes or ignores the importance of preserving good mental health and wellbeing within practice. In doing so, it draws on evidence that discussion of mental illness and health remains heavily stigmatised within the profession. This chapter also considers how elements of the legal profession have begun to acknowledge the growing concerns around wellbeing through an emphasis on notions such as “emotional intelligence” and “mindfulness”. These are often characterised in a way which places additional pressures on individual practitioners to practice forms of mental hygiene, whilst failing to tackle the underlying causes, in particular, the widespread use of unhealthy working practices, which are creating and exacerbating wellbeing issues.