Lord Upjohn Lecture - The Suffering Helper: Lawyer Wellbeing, Professional Performance and Collective Responsibility

What lies at the heart of poor lawyer wellbeing and how can we support a healthier, better performing profession? James Pereira KC will explore this question through a systemic lens, from the intimate realm of the individual through to the health of the wider system, and asking of each of us: what is our part and what can we do?

James Pereira KC is a practising barrister and certified coach. He read law at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and King’s College, London, where he was a Visiting Professor teaching masters’ students for several years. He was called to the Bar in 1996, and specialises in planning, environmental and compulsory purchase law ever since. Took silk in 2014. That same year he also suffered burn out through work and personal pressures. With coaching and therapy he found his way back to the top of the profession again, and was so impressed with the help he received he trained in it himself. He now provides coaching and training to the legal profession while continuing with practice at the Bar. He has a particular focus on the interaction between personal dynamics and professional performance, and the systemic influences that impact individual and group health. He is a contributing author to “Lawyer Health and Wellbeing” (ARK group, 2020), and has published in The Lawyer (co-writing the regular column “Loving Legal Life” for several years), Counsel Magazine, The Middle Temple Magazine and Dipika - the Journal of Iyengar Yoga, London.

This will be followed by a panel discussion of the implications for legal education featuring Elizabeth Rimmer (LawCare), Richard Collier (Newcastle University) and Aysha Mazhar (Keele University)