Sally Azarmi supports better mental health in the profession with Law Society webinar

Sally Azarmi participated in a recent Law Society event on mental health journeys and coping strategies for small firms. You can access the webinar here.

She joined an interactive panel to discuss small firm practitioners’ experiences with mental health, and to provide guidance on how to manage issues arising yourself or in your teams. The other members of the panel were: Lubna Shuja, Vice President of the Law Society of England and Wales; Evelyn Ofori-Koree Esq, Chair of the Ethnic Minority Lawyers Division, a part of the Diversity and Inclusion arm at The Law Society; and Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO Lawcare.

For many small firm owners, the last few months have been a challenging time – for some trying to keep their businesses afloat, having to carry out ‘difficult conversations’ with colleagues, staff and suppliers on downsizing; potential closures; redundancies; termination of contracts etc. For others, coping with large volumes of work, short deadlines, struggling with resourcing and work life balance.

Sally talked about some of her experiences, both personal and those of her team and shared her coping strategies which for her was learning to talk a lot more as well as physical exercise with running. She also emphasised the need to be more forgiving and kinder to yourself, recognising that for so much of her early career she has been propelled more by a fear of failure than the motivation of success.  But her key message to other law firms, particularly those responsible for team management and welfare is that: “I would like there to be much greater openness on mental health issues in law firms and much more support.  It should no longer be taboo.   We have a long, long way to go but we have to start somewhere.”