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The Bar prides itself on intellectual rigour and emotional resilience. But beneath our collective competence are suicide rates that demand urgent attention and honest, open, life-saving conversations.
It will come as no surprise that several key risk factors for suicide are endemic to the Bar: stress, depression, overcommitment and loneliness.
Many barristers work long hours and care deeply. Seventy-hour weeks are commonplace, the pressure to generate fees relentless, and the boundary between personal and professional life has – for many – largely dissolved. Stress and low mood are rife, and the odds of thinking about suicide are 2.2 times higher among lawyers with high work over-commitment (Krill 2023).
The adversarial nature of court work, the demands of client confidentiality, and the competitive atmosphere within chambers can create profound isolation, and loneliness compounds risk: lawyers who are lonely are 2.8 times more likely to contemplate suicide than lawyers who are not (Sherry 2023).
Add to this the vicarious trauma of working with clients experiencing acute distress and difficulty, and it is understandable that practitioners struggle with suicide at disproportionate rates.
Research suggests that over half of lawyers under 30 years old have experienced ‘depressed thoughts’ and 10% have had suicidal thoughts as a result of work (Law Society Gazette 2021). More broadly, approximately one in three lawyers think about suicide once a year, with criminal lawyers and barristers coming top, closely followed by solicitors in small firms or one-lawyer practices (Murray, fivehundred magazine).
Awareness of these statistics could be the first step towards a life-saving conversation – with a client, colleague, friend or seeking help for yourself.
Talking about suicide isn’t included in a barrister’s job description and yet we owe it to clients, colleagues and communities, and indeed to ourselves, to learn the potential signs that a person might be thinking of suicide, and what to say and do.
It is widely believed (by the World Health Organisation, among others) that with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions, suicides can be prevented. A conversation can save a life – and anyone can learn to talk about suicide, with confidence, clarity and compassion.
Depending on our relationship with the person we are concerned about, there may be different barriers to starting the conversation.
With clients, there may be cultural differences or professional boundaries to consider. However, clients are frequently in crisis when interacting with barristers, placing practitioners in a unique position to recognise potential signs of suicide thoughts and to intervene early and appropriately.
With colleagues, it’s important to acknowledge the profession’s culture of invulnerability. Barristers might be trained to project confidence and compartmentalise emotions, but these advantageous qualities in court can also pose the greatest danger. Barristers typically find it difficult to seek help or admit struggles –so if you notice signs in a colleague (e.g. increasingly isolated, uncharacteristically pessimistic, drinking heavily, missing deadlines), proactively start the conversation: boldly and sensitively.
If you have noticed someone displaying even just one potential sign, no matter that person’s relationship with you, trust your gut, find a quiet space and say something. The time is now. Share the reasons you are concerned. State fact, not opinion; you don’t need to interpret or analyse. ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been quieter than usual recently, and I’ve heard you say “what’s the point?” a couple of times. That doesn’t seem like you. I’m worried about you.’ This gives the person a powerful message: I see you. I hear you. You are not alone.
Contrary to popular belief, asking directly about thoughts of suicide does not increase risk or put ideas in someone’s head; it provides relief, shows compassion and opens pathways to further help. Questions like ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ or ‘Have you had thoughts recently of ending your life?’ are appropriate and necessary.
If a person answers yes, remain calm and non-judgemental. Easier said than done; specialist training can really help with this.
Listen without trying to fix; being heard can provide enormous relief. Avoid platitudes like ‘everything happens for a reason’ or ‘just think positive’. Instead, acknowledge the person’s pain: ‘This sounds incredibly difficult’ or ‘I can see you’re really struggling. I’m here.’
Know your limits; you must never keep someone’s thoughts of suicide secret. While you can’t promise confidentiality (because together, you will need more help), you can promise respect, transparency, and that together you can choose and contact other support, for example calling their GP or a helpline like Samaritans. The person doesn’t need to take this next step on their own.
A colleague might need support to contact LawCare, which provides confidential support specifically for legal professionals. Always follow up regularly; a single conversation is rarely sufficient.
If there is any immediate risk to life, emergency services (999) should be contacted without hesitation.
If we expect people to be honest with us, we need to be honest too. When a friend or colleague next asks how you’re doing, consider being honest about your struggles rather than defaulting to ‘everything’s fine’.
Vulnerability isn’t weakness. It’s a necessary part of maintaining the relationships that can save your life.
If you can’t talk in chambers about how you feel, talk to a friend or partner, the sooner the better. The intensity of practice can strain personal relationships, but our connections outside of work can provide crucial support.
Friends and family members might notice changes in you that colleagues miss, but they might also feel unsure about how to help you. You might need to explain the unique pressures of work: the public nature of some court rulings, the financial pressures of self-employment, the adversarial environment that can make every interaction feel like a battle. You might need to explain that what seems like minor setbacks in other professions can feel career-ending in yours.
Know that the support that is available for others is available for you too. Make a call, before you reach crisis point.
Individual conversations, while crucial, aren’t sufficient to address the systemic issues driving our profession’s mental health crisis. Structural changes are required that normalise discussions about mental health and create genuine support systems.
Chambers and professional organisations must start providing regular mental health training, including suicide prevention, as One Pump Court Chambers has done. Early in 2024 it proactively sought suicide prevention training for all members and clerks, to equip them with tangible tools to manage suicidal clients and to provide a space to reflect on the loss of two beloved colleagues and friends to suicide.
Chambers commissioned the accessible, powerful training, Talking about Suicide: 10 Tools (TAS10) created by Rose Rowkins (Start the Conversation) and Ann Feloy (Olly’s Future). Ann’s son Oliver took his own life in 2017, two days before his 23rd birthday; he had recently gained a First-class honours degree in History from UCL and was a well-travelled, confident and hugely popular young man.
TAS10 teaches 10 practical life-saving tools, taking people from a place of fear (‘What if I say the wrong thing?’ ‘What if I make things worse?’ ‘What if put the idea in their head?’) to a place of confidence (‘I can make a difference’, ‘I’m not afraid to talk about suicide’, ‘I know what to look/listen out for, and what I can say/do’).
Over 7,000 people have completed the TAS10, a training particularly suited to those in roles of high pressure or responsibility, with people at risk or the public.
Suicide prevention training like TAS10 should be seen, not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a genuine effort to build awareness, hone skills and shift culture. It should fall alongside policies that support work-life balance rather than just paying lip service to the concept: buddy systems within chambers, policies that encourage (and enforce) time off, and wellbeing resources that are visible and accessible, not hidden in employee handbooks.
The Bar must start celebrating barristers who take time to nurture their mental health, rather than those who work themselves to exhaustion.
Barristers are skilled at having uncomfortable conversations; suicide can and should be added to the list of subjects that all practitioners can talk about with confidence and compassion.
If you notice a colleague struggling, don’t wait for someone else to act. Tell them what you’ve noticed and that you care. The next time a client seems hopeless, don’t assume it’s just about their case.
In a profession that deals daily with the most serious consequences human actions can have, there is no more serious responsibility than looking out for each other. A conversation can save a life; everyone can learn to talk about suicide.
‘Stressed, Lonely, and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk’, Krill PR, Thomas HM, Kramer MR, Degeneffe N, Anker JJ, Healthcare (Basel), 2023 Feb 11;11(4):536
‘Psymon says: Why Are Lawyers at Greater Risk of Suicide?’, Simon Sherry PhD and Noelle Segato, Psychology Today, updated 26 June 2024
‘One in 10 young lawyers worldwide ‘experiencing suicidal thoughts’, Jemma Slingo, Law Society Gazette, 8 April 2021
‘The present business of law and mental health’, Dr Bob Murray, fivehundred magazine
Suicide factsheet, World Health Organisation, 25 March 2025
Rachel Francis is an award-winning barrister practising immigration, family and public law at One Pump Court Chambers, co-director of Claiming Space and co-author of Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession: a practical guide to trauma, burnout and collective care (Legal Action Group: 2021).
Rose Rowkins has worked as a Samaritan, counsellor, mental health youth worker, multi-award winning project lead and over the past 10+ years has taught thousands of people to talk about suicide. Website: www.starttheconversation.uk.
The Bar prides itself on intellectual rigour and emotional resilience. But beneath our collective competence are suicide rates that demand urgent attention and honest, open, life-saving conversations.
It will come as no surprise that several key risk factors for suicide are endemic to the Bar: stress, depression, overcommitment and loneliness.
Many barristers work long hours and care deeply. Seventy-hour weeks are commonplace, the pressure to generate fees relentless, and the boundary between personal and professional life has – for many – largely dissolved. Stress and low mood are rife, and the odds of thinking about suicide are 2.2 times higher among lawyers with high work over-commitment (Krill 2023).
The adversarial nature of court work, the demands of client confidentiality, and the competitive atmosphere within chambers can create profound isolation, and loneliness compounds risk: lawyers who are lonely are 2.8 times more likely to contemplate suicide than lawyers who are not (Sherry 2023).
Add to this the vicarious trauma of working with clients experiencing acute distress and difficulty, and it is understandable that practitioners struggle with suicide at disproportionate rates.
Research suggests that over half of lawyers under 30 years old have experienced ‘depressed thoughts’ and 10% have had suicidal thoughts as a result of work (Law Society Gazette 2021). More broadly, approximately one in three lawyers think about suicide once a year, with criminal lawyers and barristers coming top, closely followed by solicitors in small firms or one-lawyer practices (Murray, fivehundred magazine).
Awareness of these statistics could be the first step towards a life-saving conversation – with a client, colleague, friend or seeking help for yourself.
Talking about suicide isn’t included in a barrister’s job description and yet we owe it to clients, colleagues and communities, and indeed to ourselves, to learn the potential signs that a person might be thinking of suicide, and what to say and do.
It is widely believed (by the World Health Organisation, among others) that with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions, suicides can be prevented. A conversation can save a life – and anyone can learn to talk about suicide, with confidence, clarity and compassion.
Depending on our relationship with the person we are concerned about, there may be different barriers to starting the conversation.
With clients, there may be cultural differences or professional boundaries to consider. However, clients are frequently in crisis when interacting with barristers, placing practitioners in a unique position to recognise potential signs of suicide thoughts and to intervene early and appropriately.
With colleagues, it’s important to acknowledge the profession’s culture of invulnerability. Barristers might be trained to project confidence and compartmentalise emotions, but these advantageous qualities in court can also pose the greatest danger. Barristers typically find it difficult to seek help or admit struggles –so if you notice signs in a colleague (e.g. increasingly isolated, uncharacteristically pessimistic, drinking heavily, missing deadlines), proactively start the conversation: boldly and sensitively.
If you have noticed someone displaying even just one potential sign, no matter that person’s relationship with you, trust your gut, find a quiet space and say something. The time is now. Share the reasons you are concerned. State fact, not opinion; you don’t need to interpret or analyse. ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been quieter than usual recently, and I’ve heard you say “what’s the point?” a couple of times. That doesn’t seem like you. I’m worried about you.’ This gives the person a powerful message: I see you. I hear you. You are not alone.
Contrary to popular belief, asking directly about thoughts of suicide does not increase risk or put ideas in someone’s head; it provides relief, shows compassion and opens pathways to further help. Questions like ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ or ‘Have you had thoughts recently of ending your life?’ are appropriate and necessary.
If a person answers yes, remain calm and non-judgemental. Easier said than done; specialist training can really help with this.
Listen without trying to fix; being heard can provide enormous relief. Avoid platitudes like ‘everything happens for a reason’ or ‘just think positive’. Instead, acknowledge the person’s pain: ‘This sounds incredibly difficult’ or ‘I can see you’re really struggling. I’m here.’
Know your limits; you must never keep someone’s thoughts of suicide secret. While you can’t promise confidentiality (because together, you will need more help), you can promise respect, transparency, and that together you can choose and contact other support, for example calling their GP or a helpline like Samaritans. The person doesn’t need to take this next step on their own.
A colleague might need support to contact LawCare, which provides confidential support specifically for legal professionals. Always follow up regularly; a single conversation is rarely sufficient.
If there is any immediate risk to life, emergency services (999) should be contacted without hesitation.
If we expect people to be honest with us, we need to be honest too. When a friend or colleague next asks how you’re doing, consider being honest about your struggles rather than defaulting to ‘everything’s fine’.
Vulnerability isn’t weakness. It’s a necessary part of maintaining the relationships that can save your life.
If you can’t talk in chambers about how you feel, talk to a friend or partner, the sooner the better. The intensity of practice can strain personal relationships, but our connections outside of work can provide crucial support.
Friends and family members might notice changes in you that colleagues miss, but they might also feel unsure about how to help you. You might need to explain the unique pressures of work: the public nature of some court rulings, the financial pressures of self-employment, the adversarial environment that can make every interaction feel like a battle. You might need to explain that what seems like minor setbacks in other professions can feel career-ending in yours.
Know that the support that is available for others is available for you too. Make a call, before you reach crisis point.
Individual conversations, while crucial, aren’t sufficient to address the systemic issues driving our profession’s mental health crisis. Structural changes are required that normalise discussions about mental health and create genuine support systems.
Chambers and professional organisations must start providing regular mental health training, including suicide prevention, as One Pump Court Chambers has done. Early in 2024 it proactively sought suicide prevention training for all members and clerks, to equip them with tangible tools to manage suicidal clients and to provide a space to reflect on the loss of two beloved colleagues and friends to suicide.
Chambers commissioned the accessible, powerful training, Talking about Suicide: 10 Tools (TAS10) created by Rose Rowkins (Start the Conversation) and Ann Feloy (Olly’s Future). Ann’s son Oliver took his own life in 2017, two days before his 23rd birthday; he had recently gained a First-class honours degree in History from UCL and was a well-travelled, confident and hugely popular young man.
TAS10 teaches 10 practical life-saving tools, taking people from a place of fear (‘What if I say the wrong thing?’ ‘What if I make things worse?’ ‘What if put the idea in their head?’) to a place of confidence (‘I can make a difference’, ‘I’m not afraid to talk about suicide’, ‘I know what to look/listen out for, and what I can say/do’).
Over 7,000 people have completed the TAS10, a training particularly suited to those in roles of high pressure or responsibility, with people at risk or the public.
Suicide prevention training like TAS10 should be seen, not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a genuine effort to build awareness, hone skills and shift culture. It should fall alongside policies that support work-life balance rather than just paying lip service to the concept: buddy systems within chambers, policies that encourage (and enforce) time off, and wellbeing resources that are visible and accessible, not hidden in employee handbooks.
The Bar must start celebrating barristers who take time to nurture their mental health, rather than those who work themselves to exhaustion.
Barristers are skilled at having uncomfortable conversations; suicide can and should be added to the list of subjects that all practitioners can talk about with confidence and compassion.
If you notice a colleague struggling, don’t wait for someone else to act. Tell them what you’ve noticed and that you care. The next time a client seems hopeless, don’t assume it’s just about their case.
In a profession that deals daily with the most serious consequences human actions can have, there is no more serious responsibility than looking out for each other. A conversation can save a life; everyone can learn to talk about suicide.
‘Stressed, Lonely, and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk’, Krill PR, Thomas HM, Kramer MR, Degeneffe N, Anker JJ, Healthcare (Basel), 2023 Feb 11;11(4):536
‘Psymon says: Why Are Lawyers at Greater Risk of Suicide?’, Simon Sherry PhD and Noelle Segato, Psychology Today, updated 26 June 2024
‘One in 10 young lawyers worldwide ‘experiencing suicidal thoughts’, Jemma Slingo, Law Society Gazette, 8 April 2021
‘The present business of law and mental health’, Dr Bob Murray, fivehundred magazine
Suicide factsheet, World Health Organisation, 25 March 2025
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