Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession
15 Jan 2021
Rachel Francis has co-authored: Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession: a practical guide to trauma, burnout and collective care. This book is the first of its kind: shining a light on the vicarious trauma experienced by legal aid and social justice lawyers in service of their clients, and the collective steps we can take to combat its impact.
Rachel’s publisher, LAG describe the book as follows:
Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession is essential reading for social justice lawyers across many areas of law and should be required reading for organisational leaders, HR managers, practice managers, representational and membership associations and those in charge of regulation of the professions.
Lawyers working in legal aid, social justice or with survivors of injury regularly work with traumatic and emotionally potent caseloads and often draw on skills for which they have had no formal training. They bear witness to the pain of clients, to the suffering that humans inflict upon each other, and to the incredible strength of survivors of violence, torture and abuse. They do this while dealing with the financial pressure of poor rates of pay, constantly overstretched resources and a relentlessly hostile political environment.
While there has been a growing conversation within the legal profession about the mental health of lawyers, much of it looks at mental health as a primarily personal issue: the individual’s work/life balance and stress as a personal response. Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession draws focus to the impact of traumatic casework for lawyers and how collectively change can be made.
It can be purchased at: https://www.lag.org.uk/?id=209883&fromsearch=true#iosfirsthighlight. Release date: 4 February 2021.