Listen to Rachel Spearing, Co-founder of Wellbeing at the Bar, and Frances McClenaghan discuss wellbeing in Chambers here.
Serjeants’ Inn was a finalist for Best Chambers for Colleague Supportiveness at the Legal Cheek Awards 2023 and is nominated again for the Legal Cheek Awards 2024.
Serjeants’ Inn specialises in high profile – and often high-pressure – medical, police, regulatory and public law cases, typically involving political, ethical or social issues.
Our cases are suffused with the complications and consequences of mental health issues and, as a result, we are particularly conscious of the need for a proactive, progressive approach to well-being within our own organisation. We want to create an environment where people thrive.
We have therefore set out to create an open, supportive culture in Chambers with an emphasis on a preventative – but not prescriptive – approach to well-being, reflecting individual preferences and personalities and differing views of what “thriving” might mean. The initiatives we have introduced fall broadly under the following headings:
- emphasising the importance of wellbeing within Chambers;
- improving communication about workload and stress points’ facilitating flexible working and investing in support- systems;
- developing individual resilience and relevant skills; and
- supporting and promoting individual initiatives.