Life in the law can be fantastic; many individuals thrive in this fast-paced, high-pressure industry and are very successful and happy. However, that is the not the case for everyone. Lawyers and support staff regularly contact LawCare to talk about feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious and burnt out. We hear about long hours, demanding bosses, incivility from clients, a feeling of never being good enough or getting things done, and the constant dread of making a mistake.
2020 has been quite a year. Back in February, few of us could have imagined that we would be spending much of the year grounded – stranded even – at home. We are now living with constant concern for the health and livelihoods of our loved ones, friends and ourselves. The overriding feeling that we are not in control of events is a consistent source of stress and fatigue. Continue reading
In August, the dean of Harvard’s school of public health, Michelle Williams, called on companies to appoint public health professionals to their boards and C-Suite to help manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may hang over businesses for years to come. Does such a call apply to UK boardrooms, their structure and the responsibilities of UK non-executive directors (NEDs)?
COVID-19 will continue to be at the top of the agenda in October. The reintroduction of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus is expected to hit businesses in the hospitality sector particularly hard and there is no guarantee that further controls will be not be imposed in the future. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends on 31 October 2020 and will be succeeded by the Job Support Scheme from 1 November 2020.
All careers involve transition, but it isn’t always an easy thing to navigate. How can we usefully think about this process and, crucially, how can we ensure that the transition to leadership is as smooth and successful as possible?
Over the years, we will all find ourselves in the midst of serious workplace upheaval. For example:
Episode 60 of the Hearing has been released and is available here.
In this episode I talk with Radd Seiger, the spokesperson for the family of Harry Dunn, Co-Founder and Principal of Confluence Crisis Management Services, and an old friend and colleague.
The traditional quiet time of summer was upended this year. The tumult of COVID-19 and Brexit have scarcely been consigned to the background. However, it is the ECJ’s unexpected decision in Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems C-311/18 (Schrems II) that has probably stolen the headlines, adding to the unease for those looking after their company’s personal data governance. Continue reading
Further changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme come into effect from 1 September 2020. Organisations will also need to continue to assess the impact of the European Court of Justice’s decision invalidating the EU-US Privacy Shield.
As lawyers we deal with systems of justice on a daily basis. This is true whether we are working as in-house lawyers, criminal barristers or paralegals. However, the connection of our work to justice is often obscured by the detail of our work or sometimes its remoteness. Reviewing a data room for a share acquisition can seem worlds away from the Black Lives Matter movement, but these are all connected by systems of justice.
Last year we created a new group coaching programme designed for aspiring leaders in one of their most significant career transitions: from management to leadership. Since it was conceived in 2019, things have changed rather a lot. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that we work and the way we deliver our group coaching.
We’ve shifted from in-person, face-to-face sessions, to working within a Zoom gallery view box. This shift has pushed us to ask some important questions before launching into the virtual world: