Why Law Firms Need to Create a Happy Workplace Culture…

Workplace culture has been shown to directly impact the mental, and often physical, health of lawyers and the quality of work that they produce for their clients. It has been proven time and again that the firms which treat their lawyers well, for whom every individual matters – they’re the ones where people stay and clients are happy.

A stressful environment

‘Workplace culture’ is influenced by the number of hours worked, management style, emphasis on presenteeism and level of support within the firm. In October this year, Culture Shift reported that the legal profession is one of the worst for workplace culture. The report stated that 50% of lawyers interviewed said a bad workplace culture leads to low productivity. And 52% of the profession said such a culture affects their mental health. Overworking, mental load and internal politics were cited as the key reasons for lawyers wanting to leave their firms and, often, wanting to leave the legal profession altogether.

The Setfords approach to happy lawyers

At Setfords, we pride ourselves on a culture that is progressive and supportive. Our innovative way of operating puts people and their best interests first. We give lawyers the freedom to choose where they work, when they work, how many hours they work and the way they work.

By creating an environment where lawyers have the time and space to do their very best work, our lawyers can take on work because they want to do it, not because they need to hit a billing target. Having lawyers who work autonomously allows them to have more flexibility and increases productivity, which in turn means clients always receive the best personal attention. This is consistently evidenced by our 5,396 Trustpilot reviews from happy clients and 4.9 Trust score.

We ensure our lawyers have everything they need

In addition to our 150+ support team, our dedicated wellbeing team keep in touch to ensure our lawyers have what they need to do their best work. Maybe it’s this that leads those lawyers to say things like the following…

“One of the great things about Setfords is the sense of community among all the consultants. It gives you a real feeling of team spirit; although we’re all spread across the country, you do feel part of a bigger whole; it’s not as though you are just working on your own in an office somewhere.”
– Tim Westhead

“I have never known such a happy bunch of lawyers. When I reflect on conversations I’ve had with other lawyers in private practice, hardly any of them seemed happy, even those who had achieved promotion just to realise the extra hours and targets weren’t worth the extra pay at the end of the month.”
– David Miers

We have lots of similar statements from our consultants. Some wanted to leave the culture at their previous firms behind. Others were simply drawn to us to have more control over their working lives. Whatever your reason is, at Setfords, we aim to make our lawyers happy.

Is consultancy for me?

If you want to find out more about becoming a consultant with us, get in touch. We are happy to conduct interviews remotely for suitable, UK-qualified candidates with five or more years of experience. If you’re a good fit, you’ll be joining a team that was created for lawyers to do their best work.

Call us on 0330 058 4011 or email [email protected].

FILL IN THE FORM BELOW.