Pastoral care: support is out there in tough economic times

The impact of the recession on the legal market is unprecedented, but there is plenty of support available for those affected.

On Monday, Jasmine Walker (not her real name) was talking to the partners in her conveyancing practice about ways to bring in new business. On Tuesday morning, she arrived to find a letter on her desk saying either she or a colleague was to be made redundant.

By Friday, she was told her job was going and was given three months’ notice. After more than two years feeling part of the ‘family’ in the small practice, she was devastated.

‘It was a huge shock,’ she says. ‘I hadn’t seen it coming because, although the property market was bad, we were working on new ideas. I kept going to work for two weeks but the stress was so bad – I had recently bought a property and I didn’t know how I was going to meet the mortgage – that I started having panic attacks.’

Jasmine took her redundancy early and left, her feelings shifting to despair. ‘It has taken me weeks to regain my self-belief.’

The impact of the recession on the legal market is unprecedented. Official announcements of redundancies among the top-200 UK law firms are heading for the 3,000 mark. On top of job losses there are reduced working hours, pay freezes and training contracts being cancelled or deferred. The legal press, blogs and postings report a mix of anger, bitterness and resignation – and also some praise – about the way firms have handled the process.

The key is to stay positive, says Michael Moran, chief executive of career management consultancy Fairplace.

• Take the personal out of the equation – firms are making decisions based on financial imperatives. Do an inventory of your abilities – your personal asset base is still the same.
• Build your exit statement (why you left) and your elevator pitch (where you are trying to get to).
• Don’t fire off CVs. Talk to people you respect, take advantage of career counselling and work on interview techniques.
• Build a network of contacts.
• Work on how you can bring demonstrable value to a firm and be tenacious – people will hire you if you can add to the bottom line.
• Take time to take stock – do you enjoy your work? Is it time for a new career?
• Don’t be scared of change – this could be a blessing in disguise.

Research shows that redundancy can have the same emotional impact as bereavement, and solicitors at stages of their careers are turning in increasing numbers to the three main support groups: LawCare, the Solicitors Benevolent Association (SBA) and the Solicitors Assistance Scheme (SAS).

LawCare provides support for lawyers, their staff and their immediate families to deal with health problems such as depression, addiction and related emotional difficulties. Last year it received £125,000 in funding from the Law Society Charity. Its confidential helpline is staffed 365 days a year and callers may end up being offered the support of a volunteer – all of whom are lawyers with experience of professional or personal crises to help guide them towards recovery. As chief executive Hilary Tilby says, it is about ‘lawyers helping lawyers’.

Last year was LawCare’s busiest, with 500 new case files opened. Recession-related problems accounted for 5% of calls during the first three months of 2008, 17% in the last quarter and 25% in the first three months of 2009. ‘Everyone is affected,’ Tilby says. ‘We have distressed trainees calling who have had contracts deferred or withdrawn, partners devastated at being made redundant and sole practitioners whose firms are going to the wall. People are feeling very fragile.’

Increasing numbers are also turning to the SBA, which was set up in 1858 to help the ‘professional brotherhood in seasons of adversity’. Rarely has that need been greater, says chief executive Adrian Rees. Traditionally, the SBA provides financial help to solicitors and their dependents in need because of illness and bereavement, but about a third of calls now relate to debt and job losses, and the SBA is receiving an increasing number of calls from younger lawyers.

One of those was Jasmine, who says the SBA has been a vital lifeline. ‘I contacted them and was quickly put in touch with one of their volunteers,’ she says. ‘He really lifted my spirits because he made me see that losing my job wasn’t personal to me. And when they offered me a loan to help with my mortgage payments, I had my first proper night’s sleep in weeks.’

To Rees the recession presents the SBA with a ‘double whammy’ – more calls for help as income from SBA investments is decreasing. ‘We have built up our reserves over recent years and we will cope, but we need the profession to support us,’ he says.

The SAS provides confidential legal advice – free of charge for the first hour – through a panel of 80 solicitor volunteers. It used to come under the purview of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, when its helpline received about 50 calls a month. Since it became independent last summer it has received up to 430 calls a month.

SAS administrator Duncan Finlayson says about six calls a day come from legal staff, including trainees being made redundant, while about five calls a week are from firms facing closure or with debt problems. SAS has produced a redundancy advice pack based on the fact that most firms have gone through the proper procedures and there is no recourse. ‘However, there are also firms that are using the economic crisis to get rid of people they don’t want by dressing it up as redundancy, or using the threat of redundancy to exploit staff,’ he warns.

On callThe Law Society is also focusing on helping members survive the downturn, with targeted training courses, online seminars and guidance notes, as well as by lobbying for tax concessions and pressing banks to support legal firms. Last summer, it launched the pastoral care helpline. Maureen Miller, head of membership services, says the helpline received more than 1,800 calls between October and January 2009, a 112% increase on the helpline’s first quarter.

‘One of the positive outcomes of the split between the representational and regulatory sides of the Law Society is that we can be more focused on providing pastoral support,’ she says. ‘There is a lot more we can do, but doubling the volume of people turning to us for support is encouraging.’

Solicitors can also turn to their practitioner associations and interest groups. Sundeep Bhatia, chair of the Society of Asian Lawyers, says SAL is circulating CVs and passing on contacts to help members who have been made redundant, while Hamish McNair, chair of the Sole Practitioners Group, says the group has guidance notes and links to relevant sites on its website.

Within days of winning the Society of Asian Lawyers Young Lawyer of the Year Award, Kishan Chandarana learned he was being made redundant by Clifford Chance.

Having been qualified for just six months, he was called in by a partner. ‘The first thing he said to me was that the decision wasn’t performance-related, that it was driven purely by business needs,’ Chandarana says.

‘It was a shock. But the process has been well orchestrated by the firm. I had a series of meetings where the firm tried to find an alternative position in one of the overseas offices, but they have also been affected by the drop-off in work so it wasn’t feasible.’

He has taken advantage of the outplacement support paid for by the firm. ‘This certainly hasn’t put me off a career in law, though it has made me think more broadly about my options, such as working in-house,’ he says.

Not all firms have handled the process so sensitively. Sarah (not her real name) was a two-year qualified solicitor with the Birmingham firm where she had trained. She and several colleagues were told there were to be redundancies and the threat was left hanging over their heads for months. Sarah decided to make herself indispensable by working very long hours and cancelling holidays.

However, says Anna Buttimore, LawCare administrator: ‘By the time she called us, she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. But we were able to help her get some perspective and see the unfairness of the firm’s behaviour.’

With LawCare’s information on redundancy, Sarah drew up a ‘plan B’ to move firms. A contact offered her an alternative job and, having taken voluntary redundancy, she has settled in well at her new firm.

Oscar (not his real name) called LawCare in despair when the successful conveyancing and wills practice he had been running for 20 years was hit by the credit crunch. Faced with closing his firm, he knew he couldn’t afford run-off insurance, so he was considering asking the Law Society to intervene.

Buttimore says: ‘Our helpline adviser explained that intervention should be a last resort. Being highly respected, he was embarrassed to tell clients and friends that his practice was in difficulties but, by talking through options such as retraining or seeking employment with a larger firm, he could see a future ahead.’

The Junior Lawyers Division was launched under the umbrella of the Law Society in January 2008 to represent students, trainees and solicitors up to five years qualified. It runs a helpline offering pastoral and career-related support – it received 2,700 calls last year. JLD chair Kat Gibson says: ‘We are getting the same grim message about the impact of the recession from all across the country.’

Victoria Lee, chair of the London Young Lawyers Group, says three-quarters of the YLG committee have faced pay cuts or redundancy, and two members are attempting to change career.

Lee says the YLG is particularly concerned for trainees. Smaller firms, which don’t reimburse LPC expenses, are cancelling contracts, leaving students desperate for a job and with significant debts, she says. ‘We hope our welfare fund will be able to help some of them,’ she adds.

Claire Cavanagh, associate director with legal recruiter EJ Legal, says a couple of lawyers have raised the government’s proposal to reduce retraining as a teacher from a year to six months. ‘A number of recruiters are thinking about it as well,’ she says. ‘It’s a tempting option because it’s recession-proof.’

But EJ Legal is, she says, doing a lot of work with lawyers, helping them draw up business plans to show what value they can bring to a new firm in terms of clients and contacts, and encouraging them to be flexible in terms of size of firm and location, as well as being realistic about salary. ‘There is still some recruitment going on among the five- to 40-partner firms who see the chance to get a partner or assistant they might not have been able to attract a year ago,’ she says.

For Gill Baxter, being a volunteer with LawCare gives her the opportunity to provide the help and support that she so badly needed when she was in the grip of alcoholism.

She has chosen to speak openly to help others. ‘I am a recovering alcoholic,’ she says. ‘I have been clean for 15 years now and have built up a very successful media and entertainment practice.

‘But I know first hand the problems, emotions, manipulation, despair and denial involved, which is why, when I heard about LawCare, I jumped at the chance to volunteer. I am more qualified than most to know what it is like to hit rock bottom.’

With helpline calls increasing, LawCare wants to add to their 150 volunteers who support callers. Ideally, they will themselves have either suffered, and recovered, from similar crises or lived through the experience with a family member or friend.

Volunteers are ‘befrienders’ not counsellors and, for their own protection, they must have been sober or symptom-free for at least two years. Their role can be emotionally draining, so LawCare has arranged 24-hour access to a telephone counselling service for them.

Gill takes on some very traumatic cases. ‘It can be hard, but it reinforces how lucky I am,’ she says. ‘I drank excessively, almost to oblivion most days, for 10 years. It was only when my father took me home as a desperate measure that I finally managed to stop.’

Once ‘detoxed’, she went back to college and qualified as a solicitor. ‘I know how hard it is to get your life back on track so I am very glad to act as a sounding board for others. I just wish I had had that kind of help.’

• Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Anna Buttimore at LawCare on 01268 771333.

However the recession pans out, the big City firms are already restructuring for what they believe will be a very different legal market.

Linklaters is making between 100 and 120 associates from its London office redundant as part of its ‘new world’ strategy. The firm hasn’t specified how partners will be affected. Future trainees are being asked to defer the start of their contracts.

Linklaters’ London head of HR Caroline Rawes says the firm is doing a lot to help those leaving. ‘Generous’ redundancy packages have been offered to give people a ‘reasonable financial bridge’ to their next role. Other initiatives include a five-month programme of one-to-one coaching with a dedicated outplacement consultant, and a resources centre with access to recruitment and outplacement advice, and the firm’s IT system, so leavers can tidy up work, prepare CVs or do other personal work.

An occupational health nurse is on hand and has been called on heavily, says Rawes, both by those at risk of redundancy and those staying with the firm who are finding the upheaval stressful.

‘It is a vital part of managing a redundancy programme effectively that you take into account how you recover from it and rebuild morale,’ she says. ‘It isn’t coincidental that we are now going into an appraisal round. It gives us the opportunity to sit down one to one and talk through everyone’s objectives for the year ahead.’

Allen & Overy is carrying out a £44m restructuring programme which will see more than 20 partners and 100 associates leave its London office.

Sasha Hardman, associate director of HR at A&O, says the firm is doing as much as possible to give those at risk of redundancy the best chance of getting work, either in another role at the firm or elsewhere.

‘As part of our redundancy package, we are offering one-to-one sessions with a dedicated consultant covering a range of topics, from designing your CV and covering letter to coaching on career strategies,’ she explains. ‘Individuals can also opt to do specific courses or professional qualifications related to their next career move.’

A&O’s HR department is also concerned about the impact on remaining staff. Hardman says A&O’s employee assistance programme provides help, with counselling or advice on a range of practical or emotional issues for whoever needs it.

Michael Moran, chief executive of career management consultancy Fairplace, highlights why firms should do as much as they can to support those they are making redundant. ‘First, there is a moral and social responsibility,’ he says. ‘Second, these people are going out into the market and that puts the firm’s reputation on the line. They could end up working for one of your clients and, if you haven’t treated them well, they will remember that. Third, you need those staying to buy into your business strategy.’

Just because these are tough times it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look before you leap. Philip Beddows, a director of Iddas, which coaches partners, says this is the most challenging time for lawyers in 17 years. ‘The challenge is to get partners to come and engage with us at an early enough stage,’ he says. ‘There is a tendency to head straight for the headhunters, and their CVs are being hawked round before they have had time to think through what has happened.

‘Partners well known in their fields need to think about their brand management. People can spot desperation. We help them formulate a strategy and relaunch themselves. You need a "following" so you can bring added value to a firm, and you need to present yourself as having more features and benefits than just the label "lawyer".’

However, redundancy may also have its upside. Moran says: ‘Where was it written that you have one career for life? Now may be the time for a change.’

Law Society helplines:

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• Pastoral care helpline – 0207 320 5795 – offers help with personal, professional, financial and employment problems and refers callers to suitable support services.
• Practice Advice Service – 0870 606 2522 – offers advice on legal practice issues.
• Lawyerline – 0870 606 2588 – relaunched in March, advises on client care issues and complaints handling.

Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist