Easing the strain

As Lawcare marks its fifth anniversary, solicitors who are ravaged by stress and drink need this confidential and free advice service like never before, reports Victoria Maccallum

Long hours, late nights and looming deadlines are all too often presumed to be simply part of the solicitor's lot.

The legal profession is notoriously fast-paced, so many people assume that with a career in the law a stressed-out lifestyle comes as part of the deal, with a relatively high pay packet to sweeten the pill.

Despite - or perhaps because of - this attitude, however, many solicitors are finding it harder to cope with their ever more stressful working lives.

In these uncertain economic times, the pressure to perform is intensified, and lawyers find themselves working longer hours and investing more of their time and mental health to come up with the goods.

LawCare, the charity offering health support and advice for lawyers, celebrated its fifth year of operation last month with an inaugural annual lecture, given by Professor Cary Cooper of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, on 'Stress in the profession'.

Among the lecture's attendees was the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, who this month becomes LawCare's president, a sign of the esteem in which the charity is held.

It is also, doubtless, an appreciation of the fact that LawCare fulfils a vital need for the legal profession - in 2001, the charity opened 181 case files in total, an increase of one-third on the previous year, and the first seven months of 2002 showed calls rising by 25% compared to the same period in 2001.

From the start of this month, with LawCare's free telephone helpline becoming available to legal executives, the service will cover all 150,000 members of the legal profession in the UK - it started as SolCare, a service to solicitors, but opened its doors to barristers and changed its name in autumn 2001.

In 1998, at the request of the Law Society of Scotland, it extended its services north of the border, and now has a Glasgow-based office staffed by a full-time Scotland co-ordinator.

The service is also available to lawyers' staff and immediate families.

LawCare's service is strictly confidential and takes the form of an initial telephone assessment, advice and/or referral where necessary.

It is provided as a free service, although any subsequent professional counselling or treatment will normally have to be paid for unless available on the National Health Service or covered by private health insurance.

Barry Pritchard, LawCare's founder and chief executive, maintains that five years on from its conception, the charity is needed now more than ever.

'Lawyers - especially men - find it very difficult to talk about their problems, and there is an assumption that if they cannot look after their own lives, they are not fit to look after a client's affairs,' he said.

'LawCare, being totally confidential, gives them a chance to talk over their problems and work out a solution themselves - in most cases, simply talking about the problem is all that's needed.'

Around three-quarters of calls to the helpline are to do with stress, a figure that Mr Pritchard says took him aback.

'When LawCare began in 1997, we did not realise the extent of stress problems within the profession,' he says.

'We expected the majority of the calls to be about alcohol: at first, they were, but after about a year, stress became the dominant issue.'

Mr Pritchard has found that stress predominately affects younger lawyers - two-thirds of LawCare's stress-related calls are from solicitors qualified for less than five years.

'Many are worried about getting jobs on qualification - there are a lot of trainees all chasing the same contracts - and there's also an issue about fees and targets,' he explains.

'Firms are setting very high targets, which would be acceptable for solicitors with five to ten years' experience, but for newly qualifieds who are not used to working under that sort of pressure, the stress is often unbearable.'

Stress, of course, often leads to excessive drinking - a problem that according to LawCare's research tends to affect older lawyers - and so tackling stress at a young age, nipping the problem in the bud, may well mean avoiding alcohol problems later in life.

If callers contact LawCare with a particularly serious stress-related issue, they may be referred to a counsellor for two or three sessions to give them the tools to deal with the problem when it crops up again in the future.

These sessions are financed by LawCare from donations from a number of groups, such as the Young Solicitors Group (YSG) and the Trainee Solicitors Group (TSG).

Most of LawCare's funding comes from the Law Society's charity fund, although the Bar Council and the Institute of Legal Executives have contributed since it began counselling barristers and legal executives.

Pastoral care is an issue that the Society is concerned about, and council member Paul Marsh - partner at Surrey firm Carter Bells - has specific responsibility for this issue.

'A number of organisations, such as the YSG, the TSG and the Black Solicitors Network, provide very valuable support and care for their members,' he says.

The number of groups offering support in this way shows that the profession has realised the very real problems of stress, depression and alcoholism among its members.

Mr Pritchard, a former alcoholic, practised as a solicitor for 35 years.

When he was drinking heavily, he says, there was no support available to him.

'If lawyers are stressed or drinking, they do not work well, and being drunk in charge of a client is no good for either the client, the firm, or the solicitor,' he says.

'When I was drinking, I felt there was no help around, and I never want to see those days come back.'

Owing to these past experiences, in the mid-1980s, Mr Pritchard became involved with lobbying the Society to provide a support programme for solicitors.

In 1995, Society President Charles Elly became interested and adopted the project for his presidential year.

SolCare advertised for a co-ordinator, and in February 1997 Mr Pritchard began work from his kitchen table in Wales with a typewriter and his home telephone.

Six years later, at the age of 67, he is giving up the reins to solicitor and former barrister Hilary Tilby, who became chief executive from 1 January.

Although he admits that it will be difficult to give up his 'baby', Mr Pritchard remains a part-time consultant to the charity.

Future plans include raising LawCare's profile - 'in an ideal world we would have a pamphlet on every lawyer's desk, but we do not have the funding for that' - and developing its educational work.

At present, LawCare gives several presentations to local law societies about stress - how to recognise the signs in colleagues and how to deal with the problems.

Bullying and harassment are also issues that have come more to the foreground in recent months, problems which LawCare intends to research and address fully.

Although a huge amount has been achieved, and a substantial number of solicitors have been helped, there is always more work to be done and more lawyers to be listened to.

'If we can help these people deal with their problems at an early stage, it is better for them, their careers, their firms and their families,' he says.

So, for any solicitors coming back to work after the new year with a crashing hangover, a hardened liver and a sense of mounting stress and panic, remember that help is out there.

- To contact LawCare, solicitors in England and Wales should call 0800 279 6888.

LINKS: www.lawcare.org.uk