We’ll get you through this

We’re nearly three weeks into the Covid-19 crisis and we’re all fighting our own battles to juggle work, anxiety, a short attention span, family, children; being around too many people in one household – or not enough.

For those who have been furloughed or made redundant, the feelings of isolation and concern – even bitterness – are amplified. Those who are working feel the pressure to deliver, often highly complex and detailed documents, advice and solutions for equally stressed and concerned clients. If you can’t focus, how can you work? And the cycle continues.

All of our recent events flagged the need for lawyers — those working and those in furlough – to manage their mental wellbeing and to address the burden for employers to look after their people, whether they’re working or not. As we move into our first full month of lockdown, we thought we’d bring LawCare, CDLS, LawCare’s Cardiff based Ambassador Clare Good (JLD SE & Cardiff member), Capital Law and our new friends at NowPlay together and held an event on the 9 April 2020.

The video below excludes the Q&A session as we kept that confidential but we have shared some useful resource (at the foot of this page) based on some of the questions attendees had / ideas offered during the event.

Speakers

In order of appearance:

• Steve Roberts, President, Cardiff & District Law Society & Partner, Richard Nelson LLP
• Emma Waddingham, Founder & Editor, Legal News
• Clare Good, LawCare Ambassador & Solicitor, Capital Law
• Elliot, NowPlay

Event video

Please note: this event was live.

Event notes

From LawCare:

LawCare is open Monday – Friday from 9am to 5pm on the phone, via WebChat and by email. This FREE support, guidance and advice for individual lawyers and employers is invaluable – but at a time like this, essential. Please use and share the resources where you can. For more information, visit lawcare.org.uk

A page on Covid 19 with links to useful bodies and resources for you to access & use to help you through lockdown: lawcare.org.uk/covid-19

An invaluable Support Triage Chart, published by LawCare, the SAS, the SBA, The Law Society and the SRA, to help you triage your needs, can be found here.

Click here for a link to the LawCare Dropbox for further resources.

NowPlay

NowPlay curates ideas and offers talks, workshops and consultation services to promote wellbeing, creativity and productivity alongside redefining what it means to play. Visit nowplay.uk for further advice via its blogs and its training.

Elliot, our speaker, has written a blog on how to balance yourself, what that means and how to put his tips into practice. Click here for more.

Cardiff & District Law Society

CDLS is a part of the Legal News Community. Full links to all the organisations for lawyers and associated professionals can be found here.

The Solicitors’ Assistance Scheme (SAS)

The SAS aims to serve the solicitors’ profession by providing solicitors and their staff with initial independent and confidential advice and assistance in respect of professional, business or personal problems. In doing so it seeks to enable individuals requiring help to resolve their problems. It is open to help solicitors during the pandemic. More information can he found here: thesas.org.uk

The SBA – The Solicitors’ Charity

The SBA is a charity for solicitors and their families at a time of crisis. Sadly, we recognise that during the pandemic, the outstanding emotional and financial support this charity offers may prove necessary. For information, please visit: sba.org.uk