Rimmer: Urgent need to increase our capacity
More than 1,000 people reached out to lawyer healthcare charity LawCare in 2024, the busiest year in its 25-year existence, with stress and anxiety the main cause.
Chief executive Elizabeth Rimmer said its vision was “bold but crucial”: to transform legal practice into “a sustainable environment, where every individual can flourish”.
She continued: “This means tackling stigma, challenging cultural norms and embedding structural changes that will prioritise mental health and wellbeing in every workplace.”
LawCare’s Impact Report 2024 recorded that it received 1,037 contacts in the year, a 13% increase on 2023. Stress and anxiety was the issue in 39% of cases, followed by career concerns (15%) and workplace bullying and harassment (10%).
Of those who gave their gender, three-quarters were women, while 21% of those who responded to diversity monitoring had a disability. Seven in 10 were White, 20% Asian or Asian British, 4% from mixed or multiple ethnic groups, and 2% Black, Black British, Caribbean or African.
More than half of contacts (54%) were practising solicitors and a further 10% trainees, with barristers making up 6% of contacts and chartered legal executives 3%.
LawCare provided 82 people with ongoing support from one of its peer supporters, a 17% increase on 2023.
In all, volunteers spent 300 hours on the phone and 65 hours in online chat – use of the latter channel increased by 35%.
Ms Rimmer said: “We recognise the urgent need to increase our capacity. We want more people to know we are here and that they can turn to us for support. We want to strengthen our evidence-based advocacy for the practical steps that both individuals and organisations can take to remove barriers to change.”
LawCare’s received nearly £400,000 in funding in 2024. Its core funders are most of the law societies and bar councils of England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Jersey, as well as CILEX, the Costs Lawyer Standards Board, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, Notaries Society, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Guernsey’s Law Officers and The Solicitors’ Charity.
A range of individual lawyers also raised money through charitable endeavours, while LawCare was the chosen charity to benefit from various events, and some law firms’ trusts and foundations gave grants too.
To take part in LawCare’s 2025 Life in the Law research, click here.
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