Norton Rose Fulbright is mulling the introduction of an internal work-related stress programme in a bid to improve its focus on psychological well-being.

The firm has piloted its 'Building Resilience' workshop with its March 2014 intake of students on its PRIME work experience placement scheme. The workshops will help the student develop techniques to cope with stressful circumstances. It plans to repeat workshops with its next intake in August.

The firm is now in the early stages of developing a wider initiative to provide to staff, lawyers and partners. This is part of a wider health and well-being strategy.

Diversity and inclusion manager Sacha de Klerk said: "We are starting to promote awareness about mental health issues. We have the resources to help people on this – the next stage for us would be to work with managers on spotting warning signs, which would then have the capacity for further development."

In Australia, the firm already runs an in-house programme for all staff and trains mental health first aiders to spot potential warning signs.

There has been an increasing focus at law firms to develop targeted preventative measures in relation to psychological resilience in recent months. Clifford Chance is trialling a work-related stress programme for its senior associates after launching a modular graduate development initiative last August.

The magic circle firm has partnered with specialist consultancy Positive on both schemes.

In January Hogan Lovells introduced an on-site counselling service as part of a wider wellbeing awareness review, with staff now able to access a counsellor based at the firm for two days per week.

 

 

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