Mental health and wellbeing have become a clear priority across the legal sector. Firms are devoting more time, budget, and leadership attention to help support their employees and mitigate this growing strategic risk.
Whilst businesses are implementing various forms of support, such as employee assistance programmes and wellbeing training, one critical question is often left unanswered: are these efforts making a meaningful difference?
LawCare’s Life in the Law 2025 (opens a new window) research on the mental wellbeing of people working in the legal sector reveals a striking gap. While 88% of legal organisations say wellbeing is a priority, only half routinely evaluate the mental health and wellbeing programmes they have in place. Without evaluation, even well‑intentioned initiatives risk becoming performative rather than transformative.
This article focuses on one of the report’s key recommendations – which calls on legal workplaces to routinely evaluate the programmes and support offered for mental health and wellbeing. We explore why measuring wellbeing matters, what effective evaluation looks like in practice, and how benefits leaders can use insight – not intuition – to drive lasting change.
The importance of wellbeing in the legal sector
Retention, burnout, and disengagement are systemic risks to the sustainability of the legal sector. These factors can affect performance, culture, and the quality of services delivered to clients.
Coupled with this, we are also witnessing shifts in workforce expectations. Younger professionals, in particular, are placing greater value on wellbeing, regulators are looking more closely at workplace behaviour and culture, and the rapid adoption of AI is transforming the way legal services are delivered.
All of these issues can have a detrimental impact on workforce wellbeing, and this is reinforced by headline stats from the Life in the Law 2025 survey, which include:
60% of respondents experiencing poor mental wellbeing
79% reporting working beyond their contracted hours
56% could see themselves leaving their current workplace in the next five years
Why is evaluating your wellbeing programmes important?
Although it is encouraging that the importance of mental health and wellbeing is recognised and there is activity to support it, legal firms must ask themselves are these programmes working?
Mental health and wellbeing initiatives need to be responsive to the issues people face. (repeats from third paragraph). Less than half (45%) of the individuals who responded reported that their workplaces had mental health and wellbeing programmes that they found helpful.
However, evaluation does not need to be a difficult or burdensome task. Simply, it starts with asking the right questions.
A good starting point is for leaders to consider if employees are aware of the support available to them, if they are using it, and if it meets their needs. Legal workplaces should regularly assess whether their mental health and wellbeing programmes are working. This will enable them to analyse and learn from the results and make any necessary improvements and adjustments.
Collecting and harnessing data to produce valuable insights
Data is not just a retrospective tool; its power lies in its ability to show patterns and trends that can inform what comes next. One-off surveys can provide snapshots, but it is the pattern over time that tells the story. Tracking and analysing data enables organisations to move from being reactive to proactive.
Repeated investigation into the efficacy of mental health and wellbeing initiatives can help firms discover if there are measurable changes in absence, turnover, or engagement of staff. Surveys, feedback, and informal conversations help provide valuable data points on whether things are improving, staying the same, or deteriorating.
Predictive insights that help identify emerging risks before they fully materialise, is the goal. Patterns in workload, working hours, or engagement scores can be early warning signs and if used thoughtfully, can help leaders make informed decisions that prevent future harm rather than just respond to it when it happens.
At our 2026 UK People Solutions Forum (opens a new window), attendees heard how employers are deploying AI to help process data. AI is helping employers to strategically interpret wellbeing initiatives, manage budgets, and optimise benefits strategies. Nevertheless, any new technology must be embraced with caution. Implementing clear checks and protocols is essential to ensure transparency, security, and data quality.
Data must be interpreted and handled with care – with a genuine commitment to listening, as behind the data is a person’s lived experience. Creating psychological safety for honest feedback, and acting on this feedback, is fundamental to building trust and engagement with workplace mental health programmes.
Using evaluation to drive continuous improvement
Workplaces should be striving to embed evaluation into every mental health and wellbeing initiative. Improvement is an ongoing process and evaluation is its bedrock. Evaluation enables programmes to be successful and is the tool that ensures that the investment and effort put into them, translates into meaningful impact.
Typically, evaluation is not routinely embedded into many legal workplaces. Leaders need to ensure that this evaluation is prioritised, and that they review it and take responsibility for appropriate follow up action.
Leaders must be willing to acknowledge when something is not working and have the courage to change course if needed. Just because a certain programme worked well previously or at another firm, this doesn’t mean it will be suitable for yours.
Starting the conversation
By committing to learning, adapting, and looking ahead, organisations can move to a future where supporting mental health is a measurable and sustained reality.
Lockton’s partnership with LawCare enables us to enhance the client consultancy and analytics services we offer. Our People Solutions team collaborates with firms to help them evaluate their mental health and wellbeing programmes and support – from data collation and interpretation, through to strategic actions and continual analysis.
For more information, reach out to a member of our People Solutions team, or visit our dedicated law firm page (opens a new window) for services available to legal professionals.
