The International Bar Association (IBA) has launched a global project aimed at addressing the mental wellbeing of legal professionals, particularly in light of the tensions raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first phase of the project is made up of two global surveys – one for individual lawyers, the other for law firms and…
Law Society of Scotland launches new mental health action plan
On Wednesday the 3rd June, The Law Society of Scotland launched a three-year action plan that aims to tackle the stigma around mental health in the legal sector. The plan follows the release of a survey in 2019 on the Scottish legal profession and individual views on mental health and the workplace. The full survey…
The Bar of Ireland releases balance at the Bar survey
The Bar of Ireland has released a survey of 567 practitioners looking at workplace satisfaction and wellbeing in the Bar. The survey looks at various topics including anxiety and stress, mental and physical health, workplace happiness and workplace issues. The survey demonstrates some of the improved benefits to wellbeing in maintaining an open profession where…
Regulatory responses to COVID-19
We’ve put together the following list to examine different regulator responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have any questions or best practice for the rest of the ICLR community, please do get in touch, and we will be happy to include any of these in the next newsletter. The Nederlandse Orde Van Advocaten has…
Conduct Yourselves Accordingly: Amending Bar Character and Fitness Questions to Promote Lawyer Well-Being
Abstract A number of states have modified the questions on the Character and Fitness portion of their application for bar admission addressing an applicant’s substance use and mental health disorders. While some have eliminated the questions altogether, others continue to pose questions which authors and ABA members David Jaffe and Janet Stearns argue are overly…
Law Society of New South Wales launches free legal assistance to those impacted by bushfires
The Law Society of New South Wales, in partnership with Legal Aid NSW, community legal centres, Justice Connect and the NSW Bar Association has launched the NSW Government’s Disaster Response Legal Service, which will provide free legal assistance to those affected by the tragic bushfires in NSW. Richard Harvey, the President of the Law Society said: “In…
ABA releases annual profile of the legal profession
The American Bar Association has published its annual profile of the legal profession in the US. The report uses the data gathered over the course of the year to analyse changes and developments in the profession across the country. Subjects covered include women and minorities in the profession, legal technology, pro bono, pay, legal education,…
Event: 2019 NOBC Annual Meeting
7-10 August 2019 Hotel InterContinental Mark Hopkins, San Francisco Topics include: AML, cybersecurity, re-branding regulators, dealing with vulnerable lawyers and regulating out of state attorneys. This event has now passed.
Colorado Lawyer Self-Assessment Program yields analytical insights
Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel started developing its lawyer self-assessment program more than two years ago, immediately after a seminal workshop on proactive, risk-based regulation at the 41st ABA National Conference of Professional Responsibility in May 2015. The new resource is a leading facet of a larger shift toward proactive management-based regulation, which aims to…
An Australian Study on Lawyer Vulnerability and Legal Misconduct
Vulnerability to Legal Misconduct: Qualitative Study of Regulatory Decisions Involving Problem Lawyers and Their Clients An emerging body of scholarship discusses ‘vulnerability’ as an antecedent of legal misconduct. One conceptualization of vulnerability indicates that an individual has greater susceptibility to risk of harm, and safeguards may protect against that risk of harm. This empirical study…