This session was recorded on 25 February 2025 as part of the Key knowledge and skills for family lawyers: Mandatory rule 6.1 – live webinar 

Skills and tips for managing risks relating to complex parenting issues – Malcolm Gittoes-Caesar, Consultant, Family & Relationship Law, Lander & Rogers

In this session, Malcolm Gittoes-Caesar, an Accredited Specialist in Family Law, shares insights and strategies for working on complex parenting matters that involve significant risk issues.

This session was recorded on 12 June 2024 as part of the 2024 Staying Well in the Law series.

The field of positive psychology is only about 30 years old but it is rapidly changing the landscape of our thinking about mental health, well-being, and flourishing. What Are the things that will best support our well-being as practitioners? Can I develop more positive thinking? Can I develop more positive emotion? Law graduates believe that they can and are interested in engaging with the techniques developed by positive psychology to improve their experience of being lawyers. Their awareness has not arisen from studying psychology but from the general community awareness of the principles of positive psychology.

There is now, in the public domain, a vast amount of information about what we should, could or must be doing to support our well-being! How are we to navigate all of this and choose what is right for each of us?

This presentation is aimed at exploring this issue and exploring some of the ideas and practices developed in the field of positive psychology (and particularly those relevant to us as lawyers). It will also focus on the benefits of developing a regular practice of reflecting on our health and well-being as a basis for understanding how we are and as a basis for deciding at any point in time what well-being supports/practices we need.
The workshop will draw on the experience of the presenter in practice, as a teacher and as a workshop facilitator. It will also draw on research and evidence-based interventions.

Brett McGrath, 2024 President The Law Society of New South Wales

This session was recorded on 18 June 2025 as part of the 2025 Staying Well in the Law series.

In this webinar Anna Fischer, Wellbeing Manager for the Law Society of New South Wales, will unpack the science behind anxiety and outline some of the major contributors to its prevalence in the legal profession. You will learn how anxiety can be influenced by each person's individual makeup and background and hear how it often coincides with internal factors to affect our thoughts, behaviours, relationships, and our personal and professional efficacy. 

This webinar will also explore the benefits of certain levels of stress and anxiety to human survival, the distinction between these different sensations, and how to identify the level at which intervention and management of anxiety becomes necessary. 

Other topics covered will include practical techniques for anxiety management including how to interrupt negativity bias and cognitive distortions like fortune-telling and catastrophisation, exercises for self-regulation and mindfulness, and positive coping exercises including progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, and calming micro-movements.

This session was recorded on 20 August 2025 as part of the Staying well in the Law series.

The foremost cause of Lawcover claims against solicitors is communication breakdown between solicitors and clients. We know solicitors tend to be skilled communicators who speak clearly and factually. We also know clients will still report unclear or unmet expectations, breakdowns in instruction, and unexplained advice. So, where is the disconnection?

In this session, Anna Fischer, Wellbeing Manager at The Law Society of NSW, will approach the common pitfalls of solicitor-client communication from a scientific, trauma-informed perspective and will address the basics of emotional dysregulation, how trauma influences the solicitor-client relationship, and how it restricts the brain's access to critical communicative functions. She will also present a clear set of communication techniques that can be used to promote a high standard of clarity and comprehension even when emotions and tensions are running high.

This session was recorded on 19 November 2025 as part of the Staying Well in the Law series.

Nearly 40 per cent of legal professionals struggle with hazardous drinking habits and other substance use disorders worldwide.  There is also a significant amount of misinformation on how to prevent, identify, and recover from an unhealthy attachment or addiction to a substance or behaviour. 

In this webinar, Kimberly Winters, trauma and addiction specialist, will address what addiction is, and how to take action to protect your own career and, more importantly, your brain and body. This webinar will conclude with a practical framework of achievable, healthy steps you can take today to help you do more than just survive.  

This session was recorded on 17 September 2025 as part of the Staying well in the Law series.

Lucy Chapple, former lawyer and PhD candidate, explores how psychological science is reshaping our understanding of resilience, not as a fixed trait, but as a dynamic process that can be developed and strengthened over time. Drawing on current research, this session introduces the concept of mental fitness: the capability to sustain psychological functioning or quickly recover during and after exposure to stress.

Participants will gain insight into the different types of psychological stressors encountered in legal work and learn about three core mental capacities that support mental fitness.

The webinar will also introduce Mental Fitness in the Law, a new training and research program led by Macquarie University and tailored specifically for legal professionals. This session invites lawyers to consider what it means to be resilient and how cultivating mental fitness can support sustainable performance in legal practice.

We so often hear of legal representatives putting their clients ahead of everyone else including themselves. This especially applies to their own physical and mental health, which are intrinsically linked. The decision to place one’s physical and mental health on the back burner can have significant consequences. This webinar will focus on the importance of participation in a yearly comprehensive health assessment that targets early detection and screening for disease, key health risk factors facing the legal profession, and how you can take charge of optimising your own health and wellbeing.

This session was recorded on 20 November 2024 as part of the 2024 Staying Well in the Law series.

In this session, relationship expert and psychologist, David Fox will share with you the keys to a happy and healthy relationship.

In this seminar you will learn:

• The foundations of the happiest and longest lasting relationships according Dr. John Gottman who has over 45 years of research into what makes relationships last
• The Four types of behaviours that are destructive to any relationship - even in the workplace.
• The two types of conversation that couples need to learn in order to have a great relationship.

A growing number of Australians are providing care and support to ageing parents and loved ones, whilst also balancing careers and other family commitments. The unique challenges inherent in navigating aged care needs can have a significant impact in the workplace, heightening the risk of poor talent retention and lower wellbeing, productivity, and inclusion outcomes. In this session, Care & Living with Mercer’s leader, Will Burkitt, and Lead Care Consultant Jo Newman will cover:

• Understanding the unique challenge of elder care responsibilities
• Measuring the impact on the workforce through the lens of the employee and the employer
• Building workplaces that better support caregivers – opportunities for employers

Brett McGrath, 2024 President, The Law Society of New South Wales

This session was recorded on 15 February 2024 as part of the 2024 Staying Well in the Law series.

Research suggests we can all learn to thrive. Just like we've learned ways to be physically fit, there are practical things we can learn and do to be mentally fit, even during stress and struggle. During this one-hour webinar, Marie McLeod (founder of ThriveAbility and How to Thrive program) outlines her practical Wellbeing model, describing in detail the acronym "BEACON". Marie's mission is to show the world that happiness is a learnable skill and to make the science of wellbeing approachable, practical and easy to learn, regardless of where you are on the mental health continuum.

This session was recorded on 6 March 2024 as part of the 2024 Staying Well in the Law series.

Carly Schrever and Sally Ryan, Psychologists and Directors of Human Ethos lead a discussion on wellbeing and resilience in legal practice. With over 10 years’ experience working with judges and lawyers in Australia, the UK, Asia, Africa, North America, and the Pacific, Carly and Sally are experts in addressing a wide range of wellbeing challenges and opportunities that confront legal professionals. Drawing upon Carly’s recent empirical research, they will shed light on what is known about the psychological impact of legal work, and introduce a framework for thinking about how stressors can best be managed, with particular focus on connection to meaning and purpose.

This session was recorded on 23 July 2025 as part of the Staying well in the Law series.

There is a quiet danger that is pervasive in the legal profession: moral injury. Moral injury is a psychological wound that many lawyers experience when, in the course of their work, they witness, perpetrate, or fail to prevent something that directly conflicts with their individual, core ethical values or "inner laws." In a profession largely dedicated to preventing, witnessing, and remedying serious harms and trespasses, moral injury can be part and parcel to many solicitors' daily lives.

In this session, Anna Fischer, Wellbeing Manager at The Law Society of NSW, will define moral injury and differentiate it from vicarious trauma, cover why and how it shows up throughout legal practice, and lay a practical framework for how to prevent, identify, and manage it in your own life.