As the legal profession navigates what increasingly looks like a mental health crisis, leading figures from the world of business are beginning to open up about their battles with depression, anxiety and exhaustion.

Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia shared in April 2017 that she'd struggled with depression her whole life, while Lloyds Bank CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio said later that year that stress nearly "broke" him.

And last month, Baker McKenzie global chair Paul Rawlinson became one of the highest-profile law firm figures to make such an admission, with the firm announcing he was taking leave to combat health issues resulting from exhaustion.

Earlier this year, a number of partners shared personal stories of their own battles with Legal Week for Mental Health Awareness week. "Five to 10 years ago, we wouldn't be seeing articles of this sort," said Baker McKenzie London inclusion and diversity partner Sarah Gregory. "Now we're seeing a lot more in the press, which I think is fantastic."

Bakers has been involved for several years in This is Me, a programme launched by Barclays and the Lord Mayor of London, aimed at promoting openness about mental health issues.

Gregory noted that in an earlier round of the programme, 19 people in the firm wrote blog posts sharing their mental health experiences, and in 2017 a group of figures circulated a video of their stories, not just around the London office but globally across the firm. Such steps might have made it easier for Rawlinson to come forward about his own exhaustion.

"I would absolutely hope that anyone in our firm who was suffering from exhaustion or any health concern would be able to step forward," Gregory said. "To see that from leadership is very important. It encourages others to think about being more honest as well."

'Mindful' lawyering

Bakers and a number of other major law firms also last month signed onto the Mindful Business Charter, developed again by Barclays, alongside Addleshaw Goddard and Pinsent Masons. The signatories, which also include Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, Ashurst, Eversheds Sutherland, Simmons & Simmons and several banks, commit to abiding by a set of principles centred on improved communication, respect for working hours and considerate delegation of tasks.

"There's strength in firms coming together, sharing those stories and pooling resources," said Julie Thomas, the London-based global head of diversity, inclusion and wellbeing at Hogan Lovells. "It's sending a really strong message to the market."

Her firm also provides an example of mental health initiatives migrating from the UK to the US. Hogan Lovells first installed a psychologist in its London office before introducing the idea to the US in 2016. After being piloted in New York and Washington DC, counsellors are now also on-site in Denver, Baltimore and the firm's business services centre in Louisville, Kentucky.

The on-site psychologists are in addition to the standard employee assistance programme, where after calling in and talking to a counsellor for six sessions, employees are referred elsewhere. The sessions are confidential, with no line to benefits or human resources.

"We wanted to remove the stigma of someone saying, 'oh, you're going to a counsellor'," said Alaiki Harris, the firm's US director of benefits and wellbeing. "We were very successful in doing that."

Kevan Skelton, Reed Smith's chief human resources officer, is based in London, and he's not persuaded that the UK is at any advantage in addressing mental health issues. As an example, the mental health first-aid training programme that Reed Smith has rolled out as a pilot in London was first implemented in the US.

"It's more down to the leadership of an organisation and the culture of an organisation than geography," he said. "There's firms that get it right in London and the US, and firms that don't."

But he agrees that creating an atmosphere of openness is critical.

"It's about making these conversations part of the everyday language, so that people feel able to reach out when they are facing some challenges," Skelton added. "Unfortunately, that is not always the case."

He also voices the opinion that valuable ideas can emerge from anywhere, noting that with the leadership of his team scattered across the world, strategies can be shared across the network.

Fixing the system

Lawyer and mental health advocate Patrick Krill, meanwhile, cautions against the idea that an approach developed in one country will automatically succeed elsewhere.

"Copy and paste doesn't usually work on a cross-cultural basis," he said.

He acknowledged that the legal and corporate culture in the UK appears to be fostering greater candour and openness about mental health, but emphasised there was more to the picture, pointing to a doubling in prescriptions for anxiety and depression in the country during the past decade.

"Attitudes are different, and likely more conducive to people seeking help, but it would be a mistake to overstate that aspect of the bigger equation or to suggest they have magically cracked the code on solving mental health problems or eradicating stigma," he said.