Wellbeing & Resilience: The grateful grumbles of a community lawyer

The grateful grumbles of a community lawyer

GEORGINA PORTUS, COMMUNITY JUSTICE SERVICES SA

As lawyers, we are a cohort that work across significantly differing workplaces, each with individual demands and wellbeing considerations. Maintaining our wellbeing must address the stressors unique to the individual and our vastly different workplaces. The sole family law practitioner’s answer to work/life balance will not match that of a junior commercial lawyer at a large firm.

My experience rests in community law, an area that certainly presents its unique pressure points and wellbeing challenges. As community lawyers, our KPIs are dictated by funding requirements that must be met for the service’s survival and our continued employment. Promises of further employment and our financial wellbeing depend on the promises of such funding. We do not have to prove our billable hours to the principal but rather the value of our service to the community. It can be challenging to distil a community service down to the raw statistics to prove that the value of our work translates directly to key indicators.

There tends to be a high proportion of clients that present with mental health barriers, homelessness or housing instability, and substance abuse. Community lawyers, particularly those working in generalist practice, can quite quickly begin to blur the boundaries between lawyer, advocate, and support worker. The needs of the clients frequently demand this holistic approach. A funding gap in another support area can impact heavily on the work of a community lawyer.

The nature of the clientele also presents a different kind of client/ lawyer relationship. In my experience, my colleagues tend to have higher levels of contact with clients. Mainly where mental health issues are prevalent and external supports are not always available, this can create some taxing relationships. As these boundaries blur, the community lawyer must be reminded that their services are limited by their expertise.

In my own experience, a community lawyer quickly becomes adept at wearing many different hats. Particularly in rural, remote, and regional areas where other services may be underfunded or sparse, the role can quickly expand beyond that of a ‘lawyer’. Not every hat fits my head perfectly or indeed suits me! It took some time before I realised I was the only one with the expectation that all hats fit.

So, to mitigate the stress, one learns to work within a trusted ensemble of professionals and refer clients to seek assistance from a practitioner with a better-suited head for that hat. Consequently, community engagement is a constant requirement that works parallel to everyday practice and requires considered attention. Community lawyers work with local advocates, mental health services, counselling, and domestic violence services (to name only a few).

Avoiding burnout and ensuring staff retention in all these allied areas takes on an additional level of importance where continuity in community relationships is a crucial service tool. High rates of burnout certainly create impediments to the maintenance of these relationships and, in turn, the ability to work for your community. The community services arena can feel transient, causing vulnerable clients to become stuck in endless round robins of referrals in which no cycles are broken. Supporting the practitioner’s wellbeing is necessary for the community, client, and most importantly, us, the professionals.

I say the above to offer a realistic viewpoint of wellbeing considerations within community law; however, my experiences working within this sector have been overwhelmingly positive. I am grateful to work within the community sector and promote ongoing conversations regarding wellbeing and resilience, which will serve us all. Any role requires an appreciation of your limits and the understanding that you are not capable nor expected to fix every possible problem.

One assurance that can be made, no matter where you sit in the complex ecosystem of the legal community, is that bespoke help is available. So, a reminder must be given to reach out regularly to the available resources to figure out how best to manage the unique stressor in your world.

LawCare Counselling is a counselling service available to legal practitioners, members of their immediate family and law students. For assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the LawCare paging services number, which is (08) 8110 5279.