From Burnout to Balance: Why Law Needs Strategic Stress Management
Why Law Needs Strategic Stress Management
“Dad, I’m going to leave the legal profession.”
We were walking through the forest, leaves crunching underfoot.
My palms were sweaty, my voice shaky - but the moment I said the words, I could finally breathe again.
No rant. No disappointment. Just understanding.
And that’s when it hit me — this wasn’t just my story.
It was the story of so many others in law.
Last week was National Stress Awareness Week, themed “Optimising Employee Wellbeing through Strategic Stress Management.”
And as the conversation quietens down, it’s worth asking - what will actually change?
Because when 70% of lawyers will experience burnout at some stage of their career, awareness alone isn’t enough.
We need action - and a shift in how we think about performance.
___________
The Uncomfortable Truth About Burnout in Law
Burnout doesn’t just cost people - it costs firms.
Lost fee income
Rising risk
Cultural instability
And behind those numbers are real humans:
Confidence knocked
Self-esteem diminished
Mental fitness drained
It’s the hidden cost of unrelenting pace and invisible pressure.
And absolutely what happened to me.
Surely it’s the opposite of what every firm strives for. Surely if we thought about it, what we want from our teams and individuals is high performance that’s healthy and can be sustained.
________
From Firefighting to Foresight
As HR and People Leaders, we’ve all seen it: talented professionals who push past tiredness, telling themselves “just one more week”, "just deal with this case/matter", "just until my holiday".... but that 'just' never comes and instead performance and wellbeing both take a hit.
The problem isn’t that firms don’t care, I believe they do (sometimes in their own way! ;-))
It’s that wellbeing still sits in the reactive column - something we look at once people are already struggling.
So, instead, to create sustainable success, we need to make stress management strategic.
Because stress isn’t the enemy.
Unmanaged stress is.
_______
3 Ways to Make Stress Management Strategic
So when we want to make stress management strategic, there are three ways we can start:
1️⃣ Spot the early signs
Watching and noticing changes in behaviour - snappier emails, longer hours, or someone suddenly withdrawing - are the earliest warning signs. These are what I call the “taps on the shoulder” that things are slipping. Addressing them early is where prevention (and ROI) starts.
Not detracting from personal responsibility, I know how different my journey could have been had those around me noticed and questioned changes in my behaviour leading up to my burnout.
2️⃣ Create space for honest conversations
Psychological safety is built by what leaders model. When senior people set healthy boundaries and openly share them, others feel permission to do the same. It’s not weakness - it’s wisdom.
That openness and transparency can build confidence in prioritising self-care with client demands rather than at the cost of client demands.
3️⃣ Shift from firefighting to foresight
Move wellbeing from reactive to proactive. Build frameworks - like stress management policies, leadership training, and structured coaching - that make healthy high performance the norm, not the exception.
Quantify why it's a priority. Show it's a fundamental leadership and high performance tool. Move it from a 'nice to have' to a 'strategic business decision' that both the individual and the firm take responsibility for .
__________________________
A Story from the Other Side
One of my clients, a senior lawyer in a leading regional firm, came to me exhausted and doubting her own ability.
She cared deeply about her clients, but her perfectionism and fear of letting people down had her working late most nights. She’d second-guess decisions, recheck emails, and constantly compare herself to others.
Her team thought she didn’t trust them - but in reality, she didn’t trust herself.
Through working with me with regular one-to-one coaching sessions, she began to understand her triggers, redefine “good enough,” and rebuild her confidence.
She started setting boundaries, prepping before key conversations, and reminding herself that being human didn’t make her less professional.
Over time, her performance - and her team’s - soared.
And more importantly, so did her peace of mind.
____________________
From Awareness to Action
So now that National Stress Awareness Week has passed, the question is: what next?
Because when we manage stress well, we don’t just protect wellbeing - we protect and enhance performance.
That’s the principle behind the Elite Leadership Programme and the StressLess Academy - helping law firms and their leaders build sustainable performance cultures where people can thrive, not just survive.
If you’d like to explore what that could look like in your firm - from a one-hour webinar to a full nine-month programme or individual coaching - drop me a message and say hi.
And if you’re not ready quite yet? Save this article to revisit when you review your firm’s stress management strategy.
With warmth,
Vikki x
Creating high performance that’s healthy and sustainable.