This article has been provided by LawCare – health support and advice for lawyers

Life in today?s world has given rise to a whole range of new phenomena and our vocabulary has had to expand as new maladies have been identified. We are familiar with the concepts of desk rage and road rage and now a new name has been added – that of ?Technostress?, the term used to describe what happens to us when we suffer from information overload, brought about by all the technical wizardry purportedly designed to make our lives easier.

In the average day, you might expect to receive information from the radio and / or television, fax machines, telephones, voicemail messages, e-mail and the Internet. This obliges you interact with a whole range of machines and to process vast quantities of new data. Moreover, this data is conveyed at a pace that scarcely allows for thinking time.

Technostress, or as authors Dr. Larry Rosen and Michelle Weil in their book ?Technostress: Coping with Technology @work@home@play? describe it, ?Multitasking Madness?, results when you attempt to cope with a number of tasks at the one time.

Although, from the outside, you may appear to only be dealing with one issue, in fact, your brain is having to perform a juggling act to keep all of those other issues which require attention active on a conscious level. The harder this juggling act becomes, the more performance levels decline. The more you get interrupted in the execution of one task, the harder it can be to pick up where you left off. Multitasking can lead to people feeling as though they are no longer in control, which is a major symptom of stress. Other signs of the effects of multitasking are difficulty in concentrating; inability to remember things, inability to relax and difficulty in getting to sleep due to the unwelcome presence of too many thoughts chasing each other around in your head.

E-mail appears to be responsible for a specific group of problems. Some people are reporting that in the process of embracing e-mail and its undeniable advantages of speed and immediacy, they find themselves becoming increasingly impatient when delays are experienced or when they actually come to deal with people directly, since. Others report feeling persecuted by a tool that is meant to aid, but to which they feel so attached and beholden that they can never turn it off, so that it comes to rule their lives rather than the other way around. Now that you can e-mail to and from mobile phones and before long you will be able to do this even on a plane, potentially, you are never going to be free of being bombarded with information, both welcome and unwelcome.

There is also the danger of the stress caused by e-mail encouraging detachment from human contact. It can become the norm to e-mail rather than to actually speak, even if the person you are contacting is only in the next room. This can lead to a diminution of sensitivity, so that wholly inappropriate matters are communicated by e-mail, rather than person-to-person eg. people being fired or resigning by e-mail; announcing the end of a marriage / relationship to the other party concerned. It can also lead to misunderstandings when a tone or meaning is read into an e-mail that was never intended by the person who wrote it. Without visual or audible cues such as are given to us when we communicate either face to face or by telephone, misinterpretations can occur.

Further, the process of e-mailing documents is so simple that a trend has developed of distributing vast quantities of information indiscriminately, whereas in the past, the time involved in duplicating the same data on paper would have made this impracticable. Hence, people are bombarded with information, much of which is utterly irrelevant to them. E-mail seems to be developing its own language and there is scope for further difficulty.? e.g. one person?s attempt at humour might be misconstrued as a criticism and prompt a reply totally at odds with the original message.

The symptoms described above are just as likely to be experienced by the technophiles
(ie. those who embrace new technology and the opportunities it presents) as by the technophobes ( ie. those who struggle to come to terms with the technological revolution).

There are several simple measures that can be taken to minimise technostress. These are:

? Dedicate a set time in your day for the task of replying to e-mail, faxes and voicemails and resist the temptation to respond to each new message the instant it arrives.
? Allow yourself to concentrate of one important task at a time by having some prime time every day ie. a period during which you turn off the ringer on your fax; divert your line to someone else / a voicemail; and turn off your e-mail notification message.
? If you develop the habit of writing down those tasks which are lurking in the back of your mind, you will lighten the load on your brain and this should help you to focus on the task in hand, or, at night, help in getting a period of restful sleep.
? Before you send an e-mail to a whole raft of people, ask yourself ?Who really needs to know this??
? Ensure that you look after your physical well-being by getting enough sleep, eating healthily and taking some form of exercise.
? Take short breaks away from your desk during the day and perform some simple stretching exercises.
? Try to maintain a balance in your life and ensure that you can have some time totally free of interruptions to pursue a leisure interest.
? Leave your mobile phone at home or switched off when you go on holiday.

If you simply cannot break free of all of the gadgets in your life and you are feeling the stressful results, then contact LawCare, 9am ? 7.30 pm weekdays and 10am ? 4pm at weekends / UK Bank Holidays, 365 days a year on our free and confidential helpline:-

Solicitors, Trainees, Law Students, Paralegals and Legal Executives in England and Wales

0800 279 6888

Barristers, Pupils, Barristers Clerks and Judges in England and Wales

0800 018 4299

Solicitors and Law Students in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man

0800 279 6869

For Solicitors in Ireland

1800 991801

For Barristers in Ireland

1800 303145

or visit the LawCare web site at www.lawcare.org.uk

Remember you are a human being, not a machine and everyone needs help sometimes.

This article has been provided by LawCare – health support and advice for lawyers

The problem with a mental illness is that the suffering being endured cannot be seen from the outside. An arm or leg in plaster, a limp, a bandaged head, all evoke immediate sympathy and concern, but when someone is depressed, it can go completely unnoticed or, if symptoms are spotted, people can respond with an unhelpful attitude.

Given that depression is so prevalent in our society – the Information and Services division of the NHS has revealed that one in ten adults are now taking medication every day to combat depression – and particularly amongst the legal profession – John Hopkins University research has recorded that Lawyers top the list for depressive illness; 3.6 times more likely to suffer than the general population, with 1 in 3 lawyers suffering from clinical depression, alcohol addiction or drug abuse ? it behoves all of us to try and understand more about depression.

Daniel Lukasik, an award winning New York lawyer, has very bravely written at length about his experience of depression in the ABA magazine, GP Solo. He has suffered from clinical depression for 7 years. Having always been a high-flying litigator, he found that the stress of his work turned into constant fear. He began feeling tired all the time, feeling utterly weighed down; could not sleep; over-ate; numbed himself with watching tv. ?I felt sad all the time, with little apparent reason to feel that way: I had a wonderful wife and family and a great job at a good law firm?.

As Managing Partner of his firm, Daniel felt he had to tell his partners when he was diagnosed with clinical depression, yet he felt great reluctance to do so ?I was supposed to be a hero, a problem-solver who fixed other people?s lives. I wasn?t supposed to be the one with a problem?. When he told his partners, one immediately responded angrily, saying that he had nothing to be depressed about and to take a holiday ie. the ?pull yourself together? response. The other said that even functioning below par he was still a better lawyer than anyone else in the firm ie. the?you feeling so desperate is unnecessary and really isn?t important?, response. Both very common reactions to depression.

After trying several different medications, Daniels? depression was brought under control. He feels it is still lurking just out of sight, but because of the drugs and positive changes he has made in his life, starting with recognising that the negative thoughts that he had were just the twisted thinking caused by the depression, he can keep it at bay. Depression can be a warning bell that your life is out of kilter and that changes need to be made to preserve your mental equilibrium. It takes work to recognise this and to do the self-analysis that identifies what needs to be changed, then plan and implement the changes, but without such steps, what goes around will just keep on coming around.

Symptoms of depression may include:-

• Feelings of hopelessness and / or inadequacy;
• Weight loss or weight gain;
• Loss of energy or motivation;
• Disturbed sleep;
• Poor concentration, indecisiveness;
• Irritability / anger;
• Social withdrawal;
• Self-harm;
• Recurring thoughts of death or suicide.

If someone comes to you and says that they have been diagnosed with depression, hold off from the knee jerk reactions mentioned above. Accept that however unreasonable it may seem to you, to the person in front of you, the depression is very real and agonisingly painful. If they could ?pull themselves together? and get rid of it, they would.

Firstly, listen to what they say and establish how they are feeling. Then ask what you can do to help them towards recovery. Encourage them, when they have started on that road, to look at what changes need to be made to their lifestyle e.g. working practises; exercise; diet; spirituality; finding support groups; accepting that their illness is exactly that, not some failing or weakness on their part; that given time, they will recover. Remember there, but for good fortune, go any of us.

And of course, don?t forget that LawCare is there to non-judgementally help and support the suffering lawyer, his / her family and colleagues on a free and confidential helpline, 9am to 7.30pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm weekends and UK Bank Holidays, 365 days a year.

If you think you have, or someone close to you has, depression you can get more help from LawCare by using one of the helpline numbers below:

Solicitors, Trainees, Law Students, Paralegals and Legal Executives in England and Wales

0800 279 6888

Barristers, Pupils, Barristers Clerks and Judges in England and Wales

0800 018 4299

Solicitors and Law Students in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man

0800 279 6869

For Solicitors in Ireland

1800 991801

For Barristers in Ireland

1800 303145

or visit the LawCare web site at www.lawcare.org.uk

No one needs to suffer alone.

This article has been provided by LawCare – health support and advice for lawyers

Recognising that you are subject to an addiction is not easy. There is a built-in denial mechanism in all of us, and in those of us who are lawyers (and who are thus, by definition, ambitious high achievers, unable to delegate etc etc), this is even harder.

The professionals providing treatment programmes for those suffering from substance abuse recognise that we, in the legal profession, are difficult to treat. We intellectualise every problem and attempt to overwhelm any discussion of a difficult topic with rationalisation and a sophisticated denial system.

In his book, ?Overachieving Substance Abusers?, Dr Abraham Tworski describes the lawyer as a perfectionist who neglects self to keep the professional fa?ade alive. Inevitably, in time, ?this self-defacing and arrogant behaviour results in a predictable demise of the professional and his / her practise and the family who have been taken along for the ride.?

The problem is that the very facets of our personalities that make us successful as lawyers are those that work against us in recognising and dealing with substance abuse. The need to be intellect focused and detached from emotion, intuition and interpersonal relationships in one?s work can, in time, become such a state of mind that the ability to switch off and back into ?human? mode at the end of the day disappears.

Interestingly, 98% of the lawyers admitted into the Betty Ford Centre in the USA in 2003 were addicted to alcohol and 32% of those were diagnosed as having a joint addiction ? alcohol and work. 36% were also addicted to drugs, with cocaine being the drug of choice of the majority. The problem is that the work that we do is, in itself, addictive. The in-built competition, the stresses and the striving for success all produce adrenaline, and stimulants are a quick and easy way to experience that ?rush? again. At the very least, they are a ?quick fix? when you are feeling down and want to feel better asap (because we lawyers are, of course, far too busy to wait for anything).

Amazingly, the average lawyer entering the Betty Ford Centre for treatment has been battling with his/her addictions for 25 years prior to seeking help. This means that the professional services that they have been supplying to their clients have been affected for that length of time and, even more importantly, that their personal relationships will have been coming under strain for the same period. As with any illness, the later the diagnosis, the harder the cure.

In 2003, Dr Mark Collins M.A, talking on the subject of ?In Vino Veritas?, listed the symptoms of alcohol addiction. These were exactly the same as those involved in regularly turning to smoking or ?comfort food? for relief from stress. These latter behaviours have the facade of acceptability, but the truth of the matter is that they provide addictive quick fixes just as occurs with alcohol, and sustained excess of nicotine and of food can be just as deleterious to health.

Most people are likely to have at least one addiction in their life. As long as it is not causing physical or psychological harm, and is not impinging on the individual?s ability to carry on his or her daily personal and working life, then that is ok. However, if it does stray over the boundaries, the sooner that is recognised and dealt with the better and LawCare is here to help lawyers, their family and staff if they need to confront such a problem / problems. For totally free, confidential, non-judgemental help, 9am ? 7.30 pm weekdays and 10am ? 4pm at weekends / UK Bank Holidays, 365 days a year, ring:-

If you think you have, or someone close to you has, an addiction you can get more help from LawCare by using one of the helpline numbers below:

Solicitors, Trainees, Law Students, Paralegals and Legal Executives in England and Wales

0800 279 6888

Barristers, Pupils, Barristers Clerks and Judges in England and Wales

0800 018 4299

Solicitors and Law Students in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man

0800 279 6869

For Solicitors in Ireland

1800 991801

For Barristers in Ireland

1800 303145

or visit the LawCare web site at www.lawcare.org.uk

Help is only a phone call away.

Unfortunately the state of the market is such that this is not necessarily going to be an easy task, therefore the more prepared you are, and the more work that you put into the task, the more likely you will be to be successful.

This article looks at some of the things you can and should be doing to find work. It is not of course a guarantee that if you do them you will instantly find work. It is more the case that if you don?t do these things then you are less likely to be successful.

Few can fail to be aware that the legal profession is currently undergoing an unprecedented period of turmoil and unrest, with reductions in all types of work leaving many firms in a difficult financial position. Inevitably firms need to make economies if they are to survive the downturn and unfortunately many of those economies are amongst staff who are, to put it at its simplest, the biggest overhead that most firms have.

Attitude to redundancy

There can be few employees who want to be made redundant, any more than there are employers who want to have to make redundancies, so when the situation arises there are essentially two ways forward:

• the recriminations and anger route, which is likely to achieve nothing other than getting everyone upset, and
• the practical, get on and do something about it route.

There are two important factors to bear in mind about redundancy:

1. the first is that redundancy is not a sign of failure on the employee?s part ? it is invariably due to economic factors beyond the control of the employee, or sometimes even the employer, and as such has no bearing whatsoever upon ability or capability, and is unlikely to be viewed as such by subsequent employers. Indeed some people even volunteer to take redundancy as a means of improving their own position either financially or within the jobs market.
2. the second is that, hard as it might be, staying positive about the redundancy position, especially at its earliest stages where you may merely have been selected as someone who is in a pool of people potentially to be made redundant, is vital. Indeed, being seen by an employer to continue to be a useful and contributing member of the team may prevent you from being one of those selected for redundancy. Even after you have been made redundant, remaining positive about your employer is a good tactic, especially if questioned about the matter at a subsequent job interview. Not only will it make you appear in a better light as someone who was the mere unfortunate victim of a necessary business economy, but also no potential employer wants to think that you may speak badly of them should your employment terminate.

Practical steps on redundancy

Assuming that you have been selected for potential redundancy, there are a number of practical steps which you should consider taking.

If you are the only person being made redundant, or one of a number of people all of whom have been selected for redundancy, without there being a pool from whom those people are chosen ? for example because you are the only employee(s) in a particular sector of business and the work in that sector has disappeared or because a particular office is to be closed and everyone at that office is being made redundant – then you will need to look at ways in which you can persuade your employer that redundancy is not the only, or even the best, way forward. You may be able to offer to be redeployed at another office or in another department or to retrain for another area of work. However, since you are not in a pool being considered for redundancy, there may be nothing you can do to make yourself more attractive in the eyes of your employer when compared to others within the firm.

If, however, you have been selected as one of many in a pool of people being considered for redundancy then you need to look at the criteria which the employer has applied, first in the selection process for the pool and then in relation to how those within the pool will be selected for redundancy. Objective selection criteria such as skills, experience, qualifications, disciplinary record and attendance/punctuality should be the criteria used and not personal or subjective ones ? especially those which could be discriminatory such as gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age or disability. If you feel that the criteria are not being fairly applied then you may wish to consider challenging those decisions.

Another practical step you may consider if you are within a pool is doing things to make you a more attractive employee than one of your colleagues. Whilst it is arguable that you may have left this a bit late if you are only doing it after potential redundancies have been announced, it may still not be too late if you and other colleagues are in the same position. Thus, for example, you may feel that it would be useful to start doing some marketing to try and increase the amount of work coming into your department, increasing your contacts or finding other ways to reduce the overhead of your department.

If you are selected for redundancy

If you are selected for redundancy then you will be invited to a meeting with your employer to discuss the forthcoming redundancy. You will be entitled to bring a colleague to that meeting should you wish. This meeting is an ideal opportunity for you to put forward to your employer, assuming that the opportunity has not arisen before, any ideas which you may have for avoiding redundancy. This might involve:

• offering to retrain in another area of law,
• working on a reduced hours basis,
• entering into a job-share arrangement,
• being deployed into another department for which you already have the requisite skills, or
• agreeing to be laid-off on a temporary basis until such time as picks up.

If there are other roles within the firm which you would be suitable for, then your employer should consider putting you forward for these. You are even allowed to take these roles on a trial basis without ultimately prejudicing any rights which you may have to a redundancy payment.

Assuming that none of the suggestions above find favour, you should use this meeting as an opportunity for you to ascertain in more detail the criteria which have been used in selecting you for redundancy, how those factors have been scored and the score that you received.

Following that meeting you will be given a written copy of the decision which the employer has made regarding your redundancy and an opportunity to appeal against that decision ? although it is fair to say that you are unlikely to change many decisions at that meeting. You need also to be sure that you receive all of your entitlements including your full notice pay, a payment in lieu of any unused holidays, your statutory redundancy pay (the amount of which should be notified to you by your employer) and any outstanding expenses or other benefits to which you are entitled.

You should also clarify the position with regard to your practising certificate. There is no benefit to your employer in attempting to rescind that certificate ? the SRA don?t give refunds. However, you do want to make sure that you have that certificate to take away with you. It might be worth also checking that a practising certificate has been taken out. It may be one of the economies your employer has decided to make without telling you ? but that on its own will not prevent you from being prima facie liable for practising uncertificated.

Finally, if you think that your redundancy may have been unfair, then you should appeal against it in writing to your employer as soon as possible and seek immediate legal advice. This may, for example, be on the grounds that you feel you have been unfairly selected for redundancy, that correct procedures have not been followed or because you do not believe there is a genuine redundancy and an otherwise unfair dismissal is simply being dressed up as a redundancy to take advantage of the current market.

Contact the Lawyers Defence Group

If you have been made redundant and you believe that method by which the redundancy was conducted was unfair or you have been unfairly selected or not paid sufficient redundancy pay then contact the Lawyers Defence Group by:

• phoning on 07092 981 984
• emailing us on help [Email address: help #AT# lawyersdefencegroup.org.uk - replace #AT# with @ ]
• requesting a callback using the form in the right hand menu and someone will call you back at a pre-arranged time
• writing to us at the Lawyers Defence Group, Richard Nelson LLP, 8 The Courtyard, 707 Warwick Road, Solihull, West Midlands, B91 1TT

All that glisters …..

For many young solicitors, the ultimate goal to which to aspire is that of partnership or membership of an LLP. However, as many a duped or defrauded junior partner will testify, careful thought should be given to the move to becoming a partner and appropriate legal and financial advice sought.

Often partnership is a reward for loyalty and a genuine invitation to share in the prosperity of the firm by participation in equity profits. In other cases it is a sensible business arrangement designed to encourage valued solicitors to remain with the firm, increase its perceived size or bring much needed capital into the practice. However, prospective partners should not assume that such positive reasons will always exist.

It is not unknown for firms to invite solicitors to become partners for less altruistic reasons including:

• spreading impending liability over a larger number of people,
• avoiding the need to pay a regular, known salary,
• encouraging acceptance of a lower income,
• seeking a capital contribution to benefit existing partners, or
• having a scapegoat to leave behind when the other partners engage in professional misconduct or leave the country with the client account.

Too often gullible, vulnerable or simply overly ambitious young lawyers are left in the position of having to pay creditors for debts they neither incurred nor knew about, take a dramatic drop in earnings because their partnership drawings are inadequate or even face the prospect of being suspended or struck off because they unwittingly became involved in the fraudulent activities of their fellow partners or did ot ask enough questions about what was going on.

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Solicitors should make sure they do not make a wrong decision because they are flattered by the offer of partnership or simply want to see their name on the headed notepaper. With partnership comes responsibility and it may be responsibility they would be better without. Offers of partnership should be treated in the same way as they would treat any other business decision.

Equity v Salaried Partnership

Partnerships tend to be two main types ? equity and salaried. At its simplest, an equity partner is one who shares in the net profits of the firm whilst a salaried partner is paid a fixed sum by way of a salary. However, more often than not the key difference will lie not in the method of remuneration, so much as in the extent to which the partner has a say in the running of the business and access to partnership accounts and meetings.

All prospective partners should be aware that just because they have no share in net profits, nor a say in the running of the business, does not mean they will avoid sharing the firm?s liabilities. Usually they will have been held out as partners to third parties and so will be equally liable as the equity partners for the debts or transgressions of the firm. For example, the Solicitors Regulation Authority regard salaried partners as being equally liable for the professional misconduct of their fellow partners, even where not entitled to access management accounts or attend partners? meetings.

Thus, the salaried partner may find himself or herself liable for matters of which they were entirely unaware and could not have influenced even had they known.

The message is think hard about the benefits and potential pitfalls and ask:

• Why am I being offered a partnership?
• What safeguards exist to ensure that you I not be liable for debts for which I should not be responsible?
• Do the benefits justify the risks?

Even an indemnity from the other partners will only operate against them and will not exclude liability to third parties. Safeguards are only of use when honoured and are only as good as the financial standing of the equity partners. If the equity partners have no assets, or have left the country, then there will be nothing to be compensated from.

In particular, solicitors must be aware of being set up. Often partnerships are offered because the equity partners want to spread the burden for outstanding liabilities or to regulatory problems. Occasionally it will be a preparatory step to leaving the country with the contents of the client account. Other reasons have included:

• wanting to bring in a relative (for example a son or wife) as an employee into a firm where there is insufficient income to pay another employee. Offering a lower partnership share to an existing employee is one way in which this can be achieved,
• having someone in place in the firm to do the work whilst the other principal effectively retires,
• setting someone up to run the less profitable or problem cases in one firm whilst the good cases are transferred to another firm, or
• bringing in capital to finance debts or unlawful borrowings from client account,

Alternatives to partnership

Before accepting a partnership, every prospective partner should ask the question ?Is this what I really want??

Don?t assume the only way forward is through partnership, and ask whether the responsibilities of partnership are what you want as a solicitor. If being a lawyer is about practising law and not managing a business, then the duties which come with partnership may not be what you want.

Think about career/life balance. Weigh up the additional responsibility of partnership a life outside of business.

Think about moving in-house. The opportunities for in-house lawyers continue to grow and the additional benefits and lack of management responsibilities are an attractive package for many.

Asking the right questions

If, despite all this a solicitor is still determined to become a partner then he or she should at least make sure they go into the arrangement with their eyes open and aware of the potential problems.

Look carefully at the firm, its financial stability, the existing partners and the reasons why a partnership is being offered. Do you know the person who is offering a partnership? Do you have any reservations about their motives? If you do not know them, ask around other people to see what they know about the person or the firm.

Ascertain the precise nature of the partnership:

• is it equity or salaried?
• how will it be remunerated?
• how will advancement within the partnership occur?
• what ancillary benefits will be offered?
• what are the arrangements for sickness and long-term illness/disability?
• will there be a capital contribution and if so how will it be paid?
• what pension provisions exist?
• what family cover is provided in the event of death in service?

Above all, the potential partner should ensure they will have access to business information including the accounts and business plans.
Find out about attendance at partners meetings and responsibilities other than fee-earning.

Ask to see the accounts and have them looked at by an accountant who will be able to advise as to whether there are any potential problems with cash-flow or funding. In particular:

• are there outstanding liabilities to which the partnership is likely to become subject? If so, seek an indemnity from the existing partners;
• ensure the firm is not subject to, or likely to be subject to, disciplinary or regulatory actions from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Think about getting a written confirmation of that from the existing partners if you have any doubts whatsoever; and
• find out if there are outstanding complaints against the firm and the effect they might have if upheld.

And finally remember ? if it seems too good to be true then that?s probably because it is!