Most calls to LawCare mental health helpline in 2019 were from trainees and juniors

Over half of callers to the LawCare helpline in 2019 were trainee solicitors, pupil barristers or junior lawyers, according to the legal mental health charity’s latest figures.

Some 53% of callers were trainees/pupils or were less than five years qualified and 67% were women, while stress and depression were the most commonly reported problems. In addition, the number of bullying cases almost doubled from 2018 to 12% of calls in 2019. The majority of bullying cases (66%) involved a manager or senior colleague.

LawCare is a mental health charity focused on the legal profession – its services are available to both lawyers and students. In addition to its helpline, the charity runs webchat and email services, as well as peer-to-peer support. The charity received some 900 calls in 2019 – an 8% rise compared to 2018.

Elizabeth Rimmer, LawCare’s chief executive, said: “We spent 304 hours providing support on the phone last year, answering a call every two and a halfg hours. Last year also saw the launch of our new webchat service enabling us to provide support to more people. The biggest trend we’ve noticed is the number of people contacting us about bullying and harassment which is now one of the top three issues people contact us about, possibly because of a lot more attention on this issue in the media over the past couple of years. We will be undertaking more detailed research later this year to discover exactly how the culture of law is impacting on wellbeing and mental health, and we hope to use this to drive change in legal workplaces.”

Students can call the LawCare helpline on 0800 279 6888. Find out more on the LawCare website.