Managing our mental health: A legal practitioners perspective

The Law profession is a highly demanding, interesting and rewarding profession that requires intellectual rigor, emotional resilience, and perseverance. 

It potentially involves long hours of research, analysis, preparation of documents, maintaining communications and managing expectations of colleagues and clients, ethical dilemmas as a result of conflicts between personal values and professional obligations, and being relevant and up to date with the ever changing legislative and regulatory landscape, whilst juggling other priorities. 

Consequently, Lawyers are at risk of significant mental health challenges such as high stress levels, anxiety, depression, burnout, or even suicide. Lawyers are often reluctant to openly discuss and deal with these mental health challenges for fear of judgement, stigma from colleagues and clients.  

We will explore the impact of mental health challenges on legal professionals, the reasons behind the challenges, the stigma surrounding mental health in the profession and crucially, ways to address and support our mental wellbeing in our interesting and exciting profession.  

About the speaker

Mirabell Nsofor is a dually qualified (in Nigeria and England& Wales) solicitor with significant transactional experience in commerce and industry, higher education, local authority and the public sector. Strategic, pragmatic and personable thinker, advising on legal issues, policy, regulation, intellectual property, R&D and technology transfer. Particular areas of focus include policy, risk, management, governance and compliance.

She mentors and support newly qualified or young solicitors and is a keen advocate for the mental wellbeing of lawyers. She is presently a Senior Legal Advisor with the Alan Turing Institute, London.