By Sharon Sloam, Reflective Practice Supervisor and Founder of the Training & Supervision Academy
Introduction
Lawyers spend their professional lives advising and supporting others. Clients come to us at their most vulnerable; sometimes in crisis. We guide them through challenging times, shouldering their anxiety and distress and helping them find a way forward. At the same time, we are managing pressures of our own: billable targets, the need to generate work, meeting colleagues’ expectations and managing any personal issues we may be navigating alongside our work.
In this context, it is not surprising that so many lawyers reach breaking point. LawCare’s Life in the Law 2025 report found that nearly 60% of legal professionals had low levels of mental wellbeing. Over half (56%) said that they could see themselves leaving their current workplace within the next five years, and 32% could see themselves leaving the legal sector completely. Measured using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, the average burnout score among those surveyed was 37.8, above the 34.8 threshold that is suggestive of a high risk of burnout.
Organisations such as LawCare and The Solicitors’ Charity have done a great deal to bring mental health in the profession out into the open. Conversations about stress and burnout are becoming more common, and support is easier to find. However, much of that support is reactive. It is there once something has gone wrong and the pressure has already become unmanageable. Reflective supervision lies at the other end of the spectrum. It is preventative and built into practice, rather than something reached for once lawyers are at breaking point.
What exactly is reflective supervision?
In the legal profession, reflective practice supervision, often called reflective supervision, is a regular, confidential conversation between a lawyer and a trained supervisor. It gives the lawyer protected time to step away from the work and, as the name suggests, reflect. The lawyer sets the agenda. It is their time to think about anything that may be affecting their ability to perform well at work. That could be a case that is weighing heavily, a difficult relationship with a colleague or client, a transition, such as a move to part time working, or a more senior role, or something going on in their personal life. Sessions can be one-to-one or in small groups.
The supervisor’s role is to listen and help the lawyer see their situation more clearly. Lawyers often leave with renewed confidence in their own judgement and a clearer sense of the way forward.
How is it different from management in the workplace?
The legal profession is familiar with the term ‘supervision’ in a different sense, where senior colleagues observe and approve lawyers’ work. Managers may carry out appraisals from time to time and they will be concerned with billing, time recording, file management and overall performance. Understandably, a lawyer may not feel comfortable admitting anxiety or distress to the person who assesses their performance and influences their progression.
The research supports this. The International Bar Association’s (IBA) Global Mental Wellbeing Study (October 2021), referenced in the IBA’s recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing in Legal Workplaces: A Global Guide (October 2026), found that 41% of those surveyed feared discussing mental health issues with their employer due to potential career repercussions, while 32% worried about differential treatment.
It is for this reason that reflective supervision is provided by someone independent of the lawyer’s workplace. That independence allows lawyers to be open and honest, and honesty is essential for meaningful reflection to take place. Supervisors with a legal background can understand firsthand the pressures that lawyers face and can draw on their own experience where it is helpful to do so.
Why does it matter?
Legal work involves sustained exposure to other people’s conflict and distress. In many specialisms, and in family law in particular, lawyers are immersed in conflict day after day, advising on emotionally charged situations while juggling other workplace and personal pressures. Over time, that unprocessed exposure takes its toll, and can have physical and emotional impacts on lawyers’ health and wellbeing. This is not sustainable, either for individuals or for the legal profession.
Reflective supervision gives lawyers a regular opportunity to address the impact of the work before it reaches that point. It helps them recognise when what they are dealing with is starting to affect them, so that this can be processed, rather than left to accumulate. This supports clearer, calmer thinking and ultimately better advice for clients.
In many professions, including social work and healthcare, reflective supervision is regarded as an essential part of safe and ethical practice. There is growing recognition that law should follow suit. Indeed, in its recent report, Putting Children First, the Family Solutions Group surveyed 546 professionals and parents. Of those, 92% believed that family law professionals should have a responsibility to children in addition to their duty to the client, and 79% believed that legal professionals should have reflective supervision. The reasoning is straightforward. Lawyers’ advice has far-reaching consequences, particularly for the children we never meet, but about whom we learn a great deal. A lawyer who feels supported and has space to reflect is better able to advise constructively, with a calmer, more balanced perspective.
What can firms do?
Firms have an important role to play in making reflective supervision the norm. This requires leadership from the top, and a culture that makes clear that taking up supervision is a sign of professionalism and not a sign of weakness. The investment is modest, but the cost of doing nothing is significant. When more than half of legal professionals can see themselves leaving their workplace within five years, firms cannot afford to lose talented lawyers to burnout, or to deal with mistakes made by lawyers working under too much pressure. Reflective supervision helps firms retain their people and meet their duty of care by facilitating a healthier workplace culture, where people feel able to speak honestly about the demands of the job.
Conclusion
Reflective supervision is not a quick fix for every pressure facing the legal profession. What it offers is a regular, protected space to step back from the work and reflect, with someone independent, whose only role is to help them do so. Having carried a demanding caseload myself, while raising a young family, I know how much legal practice asks of the people who work within it. Lawyers spend their working lives supporting others. It is time the profession made sure that someone is supporting them, so they can thrive, and not merely survive.