Inside Practice: Vicarious Trauma Webinar Surfaces Organisational Risk Framework for High-Exposure Practice Areas

Inside Practice's July 14 webinar on Vicarious Trauma and Psycho-Social Risks in the Legal Profession drew on research finding that lawyers demonstrate significantly higher levels of PTSD-like symptoms, depression, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and functional impairment than comparable professions — and that the difference is mediated by longer work hours and greater contact with traumatised clients, not by individual personality characteristics. An Australian study cited in the session specifically found that vulnerability to vicarious trauma in lawyers is attributable more to organisational factors — lack of support, lack of control over caseloads — than to individual traits, directly challenging the resilience-focused framing that still dominates most firm wellbeing programs. The LawCare Life in the Law 2025 data presented in context showed that 59% of lawyers report poor mental wellbeing, and the IBA Professional Wellbeing Commission has called for firms to move from reactive to engaged, proactive approaches. The practical framework the session offered for firm leaders includes workload management, caseload balancing, role rotation, reflective supervision, peer support, manager training, debriefing structures, and psychosocial risk assessment — positioned not as wellbeing initiatives but as operational infrastructure required for practice areas with high trauma exposure, including criminal defence, family law, immigration, child protection, and increasingly high-conflict commercial disputes.