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Research report (Final version): Towards a Healthy and Sustainable Practice of Law in Canada.National Study on the Health and Wellness Determinants of Legal Professionals in Canada, Phase I (2020-2022).

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Abstract

This reasearch report is divided into four parts. The first part presents the findings associated with key mental health indicators in the legal profession. The second and third parts discuss the factors that give rise to mental health issues. Through a multidimensional perspective of health and wellness at work, these factors arise from social context, practice context and the individual context in which professionals evoluate. Finally, the fourth part outlines ten major recommendations towards a healthy and sustainable practice of law in Canada.
... Indeed, in a recent international survey of judicial officers from over 90 countries (Global Judicial Integrity Network, 2022), workload was the most endorsed judicial stressor by judges globally. Workload is also among the most prominent sources of stress identified by lawyers (Bergin & Jimmieson, 2014;Cadieux et al., 2022;Soon et al., 2023) and other professionals (Bhui et al., 2016). Our study extends the existing knowledge by confirming that workload is perceived as the primary judicial stressor at all levels of the court system, and offering a more granular insight into the qualitatively different experience of workload pressure at each of those levels. ...
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There is growing evidence that judges and magistrates experience both high stress and high satisfaction in their work; however, the subjective experience of judicial stress and the cultural and professional factors shaping that experience remain largely unexamined. This qualitative study builds upon earlier quantitative research with the Australian judiciary, by exploring judges’ and magistrates’ perceptions of the sources and impacts of judicial stress and their ideas for court responses. Thematic analysis of 59 in-depth interviews with judicial officers from five Australian courts revealed eight themes pertaining to the better understanding and management of occupational stress within the judiciary. Implications for courts and individual judicial officers are discussed.
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The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of health and associated outcomes for women lawyers. It was also to identify promising avenues of research to improve the legal profession for women. The systematic literature review was conducted using five databases. Papers were first selected by eliminating the duplicates, then by analyzing the title and abstract, and finally by reading the papers in full. Twenty-six articles met the inclusive and exclusive criteria. Women lawyers’ health determinants fall under four main categories: working conditions, organizational culture, psychological violence at work, and health determinants outside of work. The outcomes were separated into three categories: physical outcomes, psychological outcomes, and work-related outcomes. The conclusions of this study show the significant difficulties women face advancing in their career and balancing their work and family responsibilities.
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Legal sector organisations face mounting pressure to protect and promote lawyers’ well-being. However, knowledge is fragmented, hindering research and practice development. Our review investigated current conceptual understanding and empirical evidence of contextual influences. We systematically mapped the global scholarly and grey literature published since 1970, reviewing 145 relevant publications. Lawyers’ well-being is conceptualised primarily as ill-being, despite well-being’s positive facets. Empirical consideration of work context is mostly absent, though we deduce a focus on large commercial law firm practice and public service/legal aid. Our explanatory synthesis is abductive, coalescing Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus with Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory to explain how context influences lawyers’ well-being via distinct resource losses. We urge theoretical development to elucidate the role of context and theory-driven research on the cumulative effects of resource loss and gain. Recommendations for practice include a renewed focus on job design and line management upskilling.
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