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How young lawyers are redefining wellbeing
As younger lawyers increasingly prioritise their wellbeing alongside their career ambitions, the president of the LIV Young Lawyers shares how they are reshaping the future of wellbeing within the legal profession.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Protégé Podcast, Grace Oakley, the president of LIV Young Lawyers, shed light on the potential of the emerging generation of lawyers to transform the traditional, often detrimental, culture within the legal profession. This transformation is largely attributable to younger lawyers prioritising their wellbeing by establishing clear boundaries and adopting self-care practices.
In the same episode, she delved into the pressing issues and unique challenges that young lawyers are grappling with.
Oakley explained how she has noticed a prevailing attitude among young lawyers, marked by their determination to carve out their career trajectories that prioritise their personal satisfaction and sense of fulfilment.
“Younger lawyers, because they know what they want out of their careers and can make that choice, [and] that own adventure for themselves, are less likely to persevere through toxic or difficult circumstances,” she said.
She elaborated how the transformation has unfolded through two distinct shifts: first, younger professionals are increasingly setting clear boundaries within their work environments, and second, the industry is placing greater emphasis on promoting and advocating for employee wellbeing.
“[It] can be seen in two different ways. [One is] younger lawyers see that as a liberating factor and make sure that they are looking after themselves and have some boundaries in place, but this is not for me.
“On the other side of the coin, we’re talking about more of the industry impacts and the broader impacts and what we might not be seeing. I think wellbeing is a bigger piece across the industry,” she said.
However, Oakley pointed out that while the focus on wellbeing is often associated with young lawyers, it is a concern that spans the entire legal profession.
“I don’t think that’s isolated to young lawyers by any means at all, and I think that’s purely just something that has been translated over the years,” she said.
The persistence of unhealthy work cultures, as observed by Oakley, can be attributed to the transmission of detrimental expectations from one generation to the next.
Consequently, she explained how this cycle perpetuates a situation in which the harmful norms and practices experienced by one generation are subsequently conveyed to the following generation.
“One person has had a certain experience in their role, and then they obviously become a manager, and they impart that same experience, and it just goes on like that. There’s some circuit breakers that need to happen there,” she said.
For Oakley, she believes that the key to fostering a more sustainable and healthier work environment lies with the emerging generation of legal professionals.
She emphasised that these young lawyers possess the potential to impart valuable lessons concerning boundaries and self-care to those they supervise, thereby challenging and ultimately transforming the prevailing cycle of unsustainable work practices.
“With the younger lawyers coming through the ranks, because they understand what they want out of their career, they understand [what] good wellbeing means for the most part, and also they have better boundaries with their work when they inevitably move into those spaces where they’ve got responsibility for other people, including younger lawyers in their own areas.
“I would hope that that acts as a circuit breaker and that creates the environment that they wanted and that hopefully they’ve experienced as younger lawyers and that’s being imparted into the younger generations as well,” she said.
