Wellbeing

The work of the Commercial Bar places heavy demands and responsibilities upon practitioners. Accordingly, COMBAR regards maintaining the wellbeing and mental health of our members as a matter of vital concern – not only for them personally, but also for their clients, the tribunals before which they appear and the commercial dispute resolution system as a whole.

COMBAR strongly supports the ongoing efforts across the profession, led by the Bar Council and others, to support wellbeing, to remove the stigma which has sometimes attached to open discussion of these issues and to build healthier working practices for barristers and their staff. We are committed to furthering those efforts in the context of the Commercial Bar; and endorse the positive steps taken by many COMBAR sets of chambers, and individual members, in this regard.

“At COMBAR, we believe that the mental health and wellbeing of our members are crucial to their professional success and personal fulfilment. We are committed to supporting initiatives that promote healthier working practices within the Commercial Bar. By doing so, we hope not only to enhance the lives of our members but also to improve the overall quality of service provided to clients and in the commercial dispute resolution process.”

– Alex Gunning KC, Chair of COMBAR 2023-25

The following external resources may be of assistance for COMBAR members and sets of chambers:

• The “Wellbeing at the Bar” website contains a wide variety of information and resources for chambers and individual practitioners in relation to wellbeing: https://www.wellbeingatthebar.org.uk/
• The solicitor led “Mindful Business Charter” initiative provides a range of helpful resources: https://www.mindfulbusinesscharter.com/
• The Assistance Programme, funded by the BMIF, is available to self-employed barristers (as well as members of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks and the Legal Pracice Managers’ Association) in need of personal help confidentially: https://www.wellbeingatthebar.org.uk/assistance-programme/
• The mental health charity LawCare provides information and free confidential support for members of the legal community: https://www.lawcare.org.uk/

COMBAR resources and programme which may be of assistance include:

• The Combar Member Mentoring Scheme member-to-member mentoring programme.
• The ongoing series of wellbeing seminars for Combar members. The Members’ area document library holds previous recordings in chronological order.  This is the list of recordings available by date:

13th November 2023 – COMBAR Wellbeing Committee – “Sleep: How it works, what can go wrong, and how to improve it”

Sleep expert Dr Mike Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at the Evelina Hospital in London tailored a talk for COMBAR members which covered aspects of the physiology of sleep, what can go wrong with our sleep when we encounter unfavourable stimuli at work, and what can be done to better one’s sleep in and around the (sometimes) unavoidable stresses and strains of the job.

20th November 2024 – Talk on Nutrition

They say you are what you eat. But what should we eat to be the best barristers we can be?

Expert dietician Mike Murphy educated us about how the food we eat impacts upon our performance as advocates, and what we can all do to optimise our diet so that we can perform on our feet.

Please note the Parenting in Practice seminar was not recorded. While the Neurobiology, Stress and High-Stakes Decision-Making at the Commercial Bar seminar was not recorded, if you wish to find out more about Stress, overwhelm and trauma in commercial practice. More information is available on the website: Trauma Informed Law.

For questions or comments in relation to Combar’s wellbeing provision, please contact the Wellbeing Sub-Committee care of admin@combar.com.