Julie Breen of Law Society Psychological Services said last night that effecting cultural change about mental health has the goal of growing high-impact legal professionals.

Law Society Psychological Services is responding to calls from the profession for a healthier, happier, more inclusive, and more psychologically safe workplace, she said.

“This is a direct response to our Dignity Matters survey report and recommendations,” Julie Breen added, speaking at the Psychological Services festival, which has been running this week at Blackhall Place.

Head of Psychological Services Antoinette Moriarty said that at every stage of the legal life cycle, lawyers should be fit and healthy.

Legal Mind is now a very well-developed clinical service for members, she explained, and trainees can avail of time-concentrated therapy during their time at Blackhall Place.

Complex reasons

The rates of bullying and harassment are disproportionately high in the Irish legal profession, for complex reasons, Moriarty said.

“These are built in, and hardwired in, to the ways of working, to the structure of the work, to the finances of the work, to the economics of the profession.

“Anything that’s linked to economics is by its nature going to be hard to change,” she continued.

“But we are determined to do so, and we are very ambitious that we will realise that change in the lifetime of this service,” Antoinette Moriarty said.