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Help for barristers

Barristers inherently face very specific challenges on a daily basis. If you need some help click on support to find contact details and advice on seeking support.

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Help for clerks and staff

The professional lives of clerks and chambers’ staff include many potential stressors. If you don’t know how to broach an issue, want advice on your options.

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Help for students and pupils

These resources have been designed specifically for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

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Resources

Our vision

Find out what Wellbeing at the Bar aims to achieve.

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Policy & practice

Guidance on how to introduce wellbeing policies and initiatives and on tackling a wellbeing issue in chambers.

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Media pack

Logos and banners to help you to promote wellbeing.

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Case studies

Examples of successful wellbeing initiatives adopted by chambers, Specialist Bar Associations and the Inns of Court.

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Support

Support for barristers

Who to talk to, how to get help in coping with the pressures and demands of life at the Bar.

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Support for clerks and staff

Who to talk to and how to get help, resources are for clerks and staff themselves.

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Support for students and pupils

Who to talk to and how to get help for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

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Assistance programme

The confidential 24/7 helpline with access to counselling for barristers, pupils, clerks and chambers’ staff.

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News

The Times They Are a-Changin’?

Real talk. It jolted me when one of my children asked, “What is most important; sleep, work or playtime?” I had to ask myself whether this was a hint that I was neglecting those close to me? That I had succumbed to the insidious grasp of the demands of life at the Bar? Those pressures […]

(Re) Finding My Voice (and Relearning how to Communicate)

What would be your deepest fear? Of being alone? Of not being loved? Lack of recognition? This year something happened to me that gave me insight into my worst fear – not being able to communicate. After feeling unwell for a while last year I had a blood test that showed that one of the […]

Wellbeing and the Family Justice System by Sir Andrew McFarlane (President of the Family Division)

This weekend I have read two Tweets, each describing what their respective writers, both senior members of the Family Bar, consider to be oppressive and unreasonable judicial behaviour. It is very much a sign of the times (a) that such incidents are occurring and causing sufficient exasperation to lead to publication on Twitter and (b) […]

Josephine Davies on Working hours at the Bar

Recently, I caught up with a friend from university. In the 20 years since we met, he’s pursued a career as an academic scientist. I have become a commercial barrister. Over coffee, my friend was surprised that I was planning on doing a few hours work later that day (a Sunday). He asked when things […]

Tiredness and Water Jugs

If someone were to ask me to describe my perfect evening, I can think of no source of greater joy than sitting at home in my pyjamas doing nothing. There are times at the Bar when you feel a tiredness that is so bone-sapping that it permeates every fibre of your being. Yet somehow you […]

Boost your physical resilience

[Article by Health Assured] Stress isn’t a new problem. However, today it is office politics, traffic jams, overwork and late nights that cause levels to rise. Whereas cave dwellers burnt off stress through the physical activity involved in fight or flight; today we often can’t physically fight or run away from the things that cause […]

 Is the working environment of the Bar conducive to damaging our wellbeing?

 Is the working environment of the Bar conducive to damaging our wellbeing? Negative words and phrases can frequently be overheard in our courts and not just from the defendant about to be sent to prison for eight years. Barristers are also guilty of contributing their fair share of negativity to our working environments. The array […]

Charlotte May KC’s wellbeing journey

My wellbeing journey started back in 2014, when I was invited to join the Bar Wellbeing Committee as the IP Bar Association representative. I confess that, at the outset, I did not know much about wellbeing or why it was relevant to practice at the Bar. Shortly after I joined the Committee, and in an […]

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