The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, the main US agency focused on promoting well-being among professionals in the legal profession, becomes an official collaborator of the Mental Health Institute of Advocacy (ISMA). With this incorporation, the body joins the division of young lawyers of the Law Society (Bar Association of the United Kingdom), the Official College of Psychology of Catalonia and the legal portal A Definitives as main allies of the ISMA.
Founded in 2016, the National Task Force is a group made up of various professionals from some of the most important entities in the US legal sector: the National Lawyers Organization (NOBC), the Professional Responsibility Lawyers Association (APRL) and one of the commissions of the ABA (US bar association).
“This is a very important union that will provide contacts and information on the situation of the legal profession and mental health,” says Manel Atserias, president of the ISMA. The broad experience and knowledge of the agency in this field, explains Atserias, will support the initiatives that the Institute plans to implement soon, such as the forum on welfare of the legal sector. Likewise, the international dimension of the group represents a “relevant added value” for the Institute, as it is a factor “that firms in this country value very positively,” he reflects.
Several of the members of the National Task Force are already part of the ISMA Advisory Council. Among them is David Jaffe, associate dean in the law school of the American University (in Washington); Tracy Kepler, director of Risk Control of the CNA Insurance Program for Lawyers and Patrick Krill, one of the authors of the study The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys
Tips for change
Among some of the most successful initiatives that the US agency has developed, the report stands out The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. This document, prepared in 2017, was made as a result of two studies that found that American lawyers and law students suffered from serious mental health problems and addictions. It contains 44 measures aimed at all agents in the legal sector (law firms and professional associations, judiciary, regulators and law faculties, among others) to improve their well-being.
– .
