Mental health. Credit: Shutterstock.com

Slaughter and May has become the first law firm to partner with workplace mental health and wellbeing app Unmind.

The workplace-focused platform, which counts British Airways, Just Eat and Farfetch among its clientele, provides written advice, podcasts and assessment tools to help staff prepare for meetings and calls, ready themselves for presentations, assist with breathing and sleeping, and deliver preventative approaches.

Slaughters rolled out the app a week after World Mental Health Day (October 10), with about 30% of staff taking it up. The firm's executive partner Paul Stacey told Legal Week: "We've moved from being open to talking about mental health and destigmatising it, to bringing in the app and making it common for all to use."

Stacey explained that the app represents the next stage in the Magic Circle firm's overall mental health strategy, which takes the form of its associate-led 'Thrive' network, which Stacey said the app is designed to supplement.

He added: "We have sabbaticals, holidays allowed, no billable hours targets. But this is a way of trying to get additional traction among the workforce to make this a good place to work." 

Head of Slaughters HR advisory, Katie Gledhill, added: "Employees are looking for that type of resource." 

Highlighting that the app is backed by scientific research and was not just something "glossy", Stacey believes the app will prove popular among partners and other staff alike, as "a number of partners are involved in the mental health network" and because the app is "something which helps with day-to-day life".

"It gets you focused on the here and now," he said. 

The move follows a growing trend that has seen London law firms respond to calls for better mental health awareness and wellbeing among staff.

Earlier this year, Dentons appointed its first ever chief mindfulness officer, while Linklaters completed a three-month trial of health and wellbeing AI platform BetterSpace, which aims to transform the way people look after their mental health by offering users wellbeing solutions, mindfulness apps and digital coaches for fitness activities.

Taylor Wessing, meanwhile, offers its staff free premium access to meditation app Headspace.

But Gledhill believes the Unmind platform "goes further" than the Mindfulness app, and responds to a current workforce need.