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Life in the Law

LawCare’s new Life in the Law 2025 report highlights the opportunity to build a legal sector that values its people and protects their mental health and wellbeing at work. This is fundamental to the profession’s ability to administer justice and uphold the rule of law.

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Life in the Law 2025

From January to March 2025, LawCare surveyed individuals and organisations across the sector about how working in law is affecting mental health and wellbeing.

Life in the Law 2025 sets out practical steps towards a healthier future and shows how, with strong leadership and decisive action, wellbeing can be embedded into everyday legal practice.

2025 report recommendations

  1. Actively manage workloads – excessive work intensity harms wellbeing and mental health so leaders must tackle root causes by managing workloads, rethinking targets and incentives and challenging the culture of long hours.
  2. Prioritise and value managing people – legal workplaces should give people managers enough time, targeted training and ongoing support and recognise management as a critical skill. Senior lawyers should not be
    assumed to be good managers without proper development.
  3. Embed hybrid and flexible working options – these ways of working support wellbeing and inclusion. To work well they must be designed with care, balancing benefits with challenges (like isolation) and shaped through open dialogue and collaboration.
  4. Evaluate programmes and activities that support mental health and wellbeing at work – legal workplaces should regularly assess whether
    their mental health and wellbeing programmes are working, analyse and learn from the results and make any necessary improvements and adjustments.
  5. Legal education and training should equip people joining the sector with the skills and knowledge they need for a sustainable legal career.

2025 headlines

How do people feel about working in the legal sector?

What are the current levels of mental health and wellbeing of people in the legal sector?

What is undermining mental health and wellbeing in the legal workplace?

What could have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing in legal workplaces?

A call to the whole sector

LawCare calls on every firm, every chambers, every in-house team, every courtroom, every professional body, every regulator, every educational organisation, every insurer, every individual and every leader to step up and take action to create a sustainable sector – one that inspires trust, is progressive, and above all, values its people as its greatest strength.

In 2026 LawCare will start a programme of engagement to develop resources and training to support leaders and organisations to put these recommendations into practice.

Find out more by joining LawCare’s Let’s talk about Life in the Law 2025 webinar on Wednesday 12 November, 12 to 1pm. Sign up here.

Life in the Law 2020/21

The original Life in the Law research (2020/21) was the first of its kind to explore mental health and wellbeing in the legal sector across the UK, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.

LawCare, supported by a committee of legal professionals and academics, conducted the research to better understand how working culture and practices impact the mental health and wellbeing of people working in law. A wide variety of legal professionals took part, sharing their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020/21 key findings:

The study highlights the urgent need for cultural change in the legal sector, including better leadership training, more open conversations around mental health, and greater recognition of how different factors – such as age, gender, ethnicity, and disability – intersect to shape wellbeing. Creating a healthier legal sector will require a shared commitment across the profession.

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