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services for law firms / corporates
Whether you are a law firm or a corporate with an in-house legal team, the key to your success is your staff.
You’ve invested time and money in training people. You’ve let them run their own deals. You’ve inspired them to be business savvy and encouraged them to develop their own client base. They are the future success story of your business.
Yet, sadly, despite all this investment in people, the legal profession still falls short when it comes to supporting the well-being of their lawyers.
“To be a good lawyer, one has to be a healthy lawyer”
– National Task Force of Lawyer Well-Being
In 2016, the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers commissioned a task force to perform a study on the well-being of lawyers (the Study).
The Study revealed that “too many lawyers and law students experience chronic stress and high rates of depression and substance use.
These findings are incompatible with a sustainable legal profession, and they raise troubling implications for many lawyers’ basic competence.”
The Study stresses the need for all organisations to “actively promote and participate in the well-being of their legal professionals.”
The well-being of legal professionals can no longer be ignored.
IT’S TIME TO STOP THE STIGMA AROUND “SOFTER” ISSUES
For over 15 years, I have watched and experienced the effects that a lack of understanding around the importance of well-being can have on legal professionals.
Although some law firms and corporates have attempted to implement wellness policies and train executive team members on how to address the “softer” issues, there is still a general reluctance to talk about these issues for fear of appearing weak or being ridiculed.
The very fact the industry still refers to issues of well-being as “soft issues” merely supports this underlying fear.
So, how can you protect the well-being of your legal professionals?
- Practise what you preach. If you are to encourage work-life balance, you need to be practising it yourself. Change starts from the top down.
- Provide access to services to support the well-being of your legal professionals, such as coaching, mentoring and counselling.
- Identify the role your management team can play in reducing the risk of burnout amongst your legal professionals.
- Eliminate the stigma associated with seeking help and the negative recourse when help is sought.
- Emphasise that well-being is an indispensable part of a lawyer’s duty of competence.
- Educate all your staff on well-being issues.
What is your organisation currently doing to promote the well-being of its legal professionals?
Make your legal professionals’ well-being a priority
We are no longer just talking about the need to take care of the physical wellness of legal professionals. Ergonomic chairs, stand-up desks, lunch-time exercise programmes and healthy food baskets are all well and good, but they have not resolved the problems related to stress, anxiety and burnout.
In order to enhance the well-being of your legal staff and improve their engagement, you need to focus on the “whole person” – not just the lawyer – and acknowledge the connection between the different aspects of a person’s life (work, social, family, love, health, and spirituality).
Braving Boundaries offers a range of services specifically targeted at enhancing the well-being of your legal professionals.
One-on-One Coaching
Provide your lawyers with access to the coaching support they need.
Many individual lawyers don’t feel comfortable talking about personal issues in the work-place or with work colleagues, but this doesn’t mean these issues shouldn’t be talked about.
Unless addressed, they may impact the individual’s engagement and/or productivity at work.
Braving Boundaries provides legal professionals with a safe place, without judgment or fear of repercussion, where they can talk about these personal issues with someone who understands their world.
The One-on-One Coaching Programmes are designed to help legal professionals create real work-life balance and provide them with the skills to excel in all aspects of their lives.
Well-being Workshops
Organise workshops to tackle well-being in the workplace.
Whether your organisation is just beginning to implement a staff well-being programme or is advanced in its efforts, Braving Boundaries can provide you with tailored and focused workshops on a variety of well-being topics.
Topics include:
- Braving Boundaries – The importance of balance.
- “I just don’t have the time!” – Identity or Reality?
- Spotting the signs of burnout.
- A crash course in courage.
- Toxic work environments: from surviving to thriving.
- From the top, down: Incorporating a culture of well-being culture into your workplace
Each workshop is bespoke and is designed to best suit you and your legal team.
Contact Braving Boundaries for more information on how you can best support your staff
Contact Braving Boundaries for more information about creating tailored workshops for the well-being of your staff
Why Braving Boundaries?
With a number of excellent coaches in the marketplace, why should you choose Braving Boundaries?
- Braving Boundaries provides bespoke coaching and training specifically for legal professionals, designed by a legal professional.
- The core focus of Braving Boundaries is the legal professional as a whole person (not just their role as a lawyer). It is therefore not limited to business coaching or leadership coaching.
- One-on-one coaching sessions are personalised to the individual lawyer’s needs and requirements – there is nothing bog-standard about this programme.
- Braving Boundaries provides legal professionals with a safe and confidential place to discuss their well-being.
Frieda Levycky: the coach behind Braving Boundaries
I am a practising solicitor, qualified in England, with over 15 years of experience both in-house and in private practice. I’ve lived and worked in London, Hong Kong, Geneva, Dubai, Singapore and Japan, and have navigated my way through the legal world from trainee to in-house counsel to partner. I now run an international practice from my home in Cape Town.
I became a certified life coach to help legal professionals create real work-life balance, so that they can lead a happier, healthier and more fulfilling life both professionally and personally. I wanted to provide a safe space for legal professionals to talk about personal issues with someone who understands their world; issues they struggle to discuss with anyone else.
I’ve walked my talk and continue to do so. I’ve seen and experienced the benefits of Whole Person Coaching and have transformed my life in a way I never thought possible, without affecting my productivity or ability to perform my professional duties. Let me help your legal professionals to do the same.
Qualifications
- LL.B, University of Warwick
- Dip.LP (Distinction), BPP
- Whole Person Certified Coach®
- International Coaching Federation Certified (ACC)
- Mentor
