One of the strongest messages from the research was about sustainability. Too many people were questioning whether they wanted, or were able, to stay where they were:
- More than half (56.2%) said they could see themselves leaving their current workplace within five years.
- Nearly a third (32.1%) could see themselves leaving the legal sector altogether within the next five years.
- Nearly 60% of people had poor mental wellbeing and half had experienced anxiety often, very often or all of the time in the previous 12 months
- 43.4% said their mental health and wellbeing was very significantly influenced by work.
- More than three quarters (78.7%) of people were working beyond their contracted hours, with 8.5% estimating they worked an extra 21 hours or more each week.
Those figures were a call for change in 2025, and they still are.
Five recommendations
Life in the Law 2025 made five recommendations:
- Actively manage workloads
- Prioritise and value managing people
- Embed hybrid and flexible working options
- Evaluate programmes and activities that support mental health and wellbeing at work
- Make sure legal education and training equips people with the skills and knowledge they need for a sustainable legal career
There are things organisations can change, and these five recommendations are a good place to start.
If you haven’t looked at Life in the Law 2025 for a while, now is a good time to go back to it. And if it’s new to you, take a look at the findings and think about what the recommendations could mean for your organisation.
Life in the Law 2025 research
In October 2025 we published our Life in the Law 2025 report.
This report highlights the opportunity to build a legal sector that values its people and protects their mental health and wellbeing at work. This is fundamental to the profession’s ability to administer justice and uphold the rule of law.
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