The Law Society

The Law Society is an independent professional body in England and Wales for solicitors. The Law Society provides a range of support to enable its members to develop their professional competence. It works to support members through every stage of their career, including hosting events and e-learning opportunities, offering a career development service, providing a jobs board that helps keep members informed of new vacancies and more.

Follow this link for more information about The Law Society: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/about-us/

Mental health support

There is a recognition of the importance of mental health and wellbeing within the legal sector. As such, there are a range of initiatives and dedicated organisations that provide mental health support. In addition research is being carried out on wellbeing within the legal profession in order to determine the causes of stress within the sector and to provide evidence-based interventions.

Apart from general mental health support including Samaritans and Mind, there are also Law specific mental health services. One such organisation is the independent charity called LawCare, which aims to promote wellbeing and good mental health within the legal community. LawCare can provide confidential and independent advice to anyone within the legal society, their families, as well as support staff. In addition to this, the Law Society also has a dedicated helpline that can be used if one is experiencing employment, personal, financial or professional difficulties. With all these support systems in place, it is being ensured that help is put into place for those who need it.

Please watch the following video about the work that LawCare do, to get a better understanding of both the field, and how the sector is working to alleviate some of the issues:

Please go to Youtube and search for the following video:-

Law Care (2019) About Law Care

Career progression

Perhaps at some point in your law career you might decide that you want something more challenging, want to try something new, or simply progress in your career. There is a range of support in this area.

At the very start of your career, there is support provided in order to allow you to plan your legal career. For example, The University of Law provides a comprehensive document that can aid in this. This document provides a information including levels of education needed, funding options, work experience and vacation schemes, as well as information on training contract. Please see this “Planning your legal career” resource created by the University of Law, which is incredibly helpful for those at the very start of their law career: https://www.law.ac.uk/globalassets/13.-media–doc-repo/03.-employability/step/pdf_employability_step-3-resource-book.pdf

Having worked in Law, you might then want to perhaps change career direction, look at alternative careers, or even return to work after taking a break. There is a range of support available in the area: the Law Society offers a free service for members to receive confidential advice in these areas from a careers coach.

There are a range of people who change directions, for example making the move from private practice into industry or teaching.