The International Bar Association (IBA) has embarked on a global project aimed at addressing the mental wellbeing of legal professionals as COVID-19 exacerbates tensions in professional and personal lives. The key initial phase of the project consists of two global surveys – one for individual lawyers, the other for law firms and other legal institutions, including bar associations, law societies and in-house legal departments. Available in both English and Spanish, the surveys are anonymous and take approximately ten minutes to complete.

The IBA Individual Lawyer Wellbeing Survey can be accessed here.
The IBA Institutional Wellbeing Survey is available here.

The data gathered from the completed surveys will provide insight into:

• the pressing mental health concerns of legal professionals;
• the support they can expect to receive from their workplaces;
• how the wellbeing of lawyers and other stakeholders in the legal profession are affected by their work and working environments;
• identifying problems that each might have faced in getting the help they needed; and
• what law firms, bars and law societies should be doing to support those in distress.

Data gathered from the surveys will be discussed in detail by the IBA’s Wellbeing Taskforce in a showcase session at the IBA 2020 – Virtually Together Conference in November.