Are you Fit for Law? LawCare updates

Some think there is no place for emotion in the law and believe emotions interfere with rational thinking. In fact there is a huge body of scientific evidence which proves cognition and emotion are intertwined. If we consider that emotions affect your actions, decision-making, reasoning, thought processes and judgement, we can clearly see the relevance of emotion in the law.

Often lawyers enter the workplace without the emotional competencies needed to meet the demands of an evolving profession. Emotional competency is about how we understand and handle our emotions, as well as identifying and interpreting emotional responses around us.

Providing legal professionals with resources to enable them to understand and develop key emotional competencies such as emotional self-awareness, self-reflection and better strategies for emotional self-regulation is one way to equip them more effectively for practice, enhance their wellbeing and potentially reduce levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

LawCare and academics at The Open University and the University of Sheffield have developed a new free online resource on emotional competency and professional resilience for the legal community.

The interactive resource, called Fit for Law, is part of an on-going project to promote psychologically and emotionally healthier ways of working within law and was developed based on evidence from focus groups with legal professionals across the UK and Ireland. The course takes 2-4 hours in total to complete but is broken down into smaller sections, and includes videos from legal professionals discussing wellbeing issues as well as a range of interactive activities.

The goal is to foster enhanced wellbeing, to support legal professionals to not just survive, but to also thrive, within a challenging work environment.

In addition to providing resources aimed at individual practitioners, the resources we are developing will include a tool kit for employers, to encourage positive organisational and cultural change in the legal workplace.

The resources are available to everyone studying law or working in the legal profession. For more information visit fitforlaw.org.uk

If you need emotional support call LawCare on 0800 279 6888 or visit www.lawcare.org.uk to access webchat, email support and other resources.

You can also view the video clips from Fit for Law on our You Tube channel

LawCare continue to add new resources to our covid hub, https://www.lawcare.org.uk/covid-19 40% of our support contacts have a covid element, with returning to work and concerns about having a job and the future being common reasons for reaching out to us for support. You can find all our covid resources here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8w56vhcw68rdg2u/AAANy_t_7k73vv1RsY0nhi1Ca?dl=0