Lawyers suffering with poor mental health are more likely to speak out about their feelings when their managers do the same, a breakout session at Legal Week's Banking Litigation & Regulation Forum heard last week.

The session, which featured various senior partners and in-house legal professionals, focused on the role of senior managers in managing mental health issues.

Samantha Brown, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, said: "If you speak to people whose managers have spoken out about [mental health], those teams tend to be more collegiate and compassionate… But that plainly isn't happening across the City. Firms are making progress but it's not a critical mass."

Barclays' commercial, innovation and technology legal team head David McCahon echoed her views and added that it is important to create a supportive environment so that people can talk to their line managers.

"People will think, 'he is approachable and I can talk to him', and it encourages them to ask for the support they need," said McCahon.

The panel also discussed the factors that can make lawyers as a group especially prone to poor mental health, which included having highly active, analytical mindsets and pressures to fulfil billable hours targets.

Brown added: "We don't like to go into conversations with team members who are struggling unless we are 100% equipped to deal with it, as lawyers we like to know that we will know the answer.

"Emotional intelligence is key now. Culturally there has been a change in the nature of the people coming through the ranks, and there's less of a culture of turning a blind eye to bad habits and people skills."

Panel member and CEO of mental health charity LawCare, Elizabeth Rimmer, said lawyers will likely spend the majority of their time with their colleagues, so they will be able to gauge when someone is suffering from poor mental health.

She advocates reaching out to colleagues who may be struggling, saying: "You don't have to fix their problems, you can just be there to support them."

Other focuses of discussion throughout the forum, which was held at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel on June 13, included the increase of accountability being felt by individuals at financial institutions following the Senior Managers & Certification Regime coming into effect, as well as the importance of thinking about which documents can be classed as legally privileged from the very first day of a regulatory investigation.