Leadership and Wellbeing Conference for the Bar
Tuesday 23rd April 2024, 09:00-17:00
For Barristers, Chambers Management, Clerks and other supporters of wellbeing within chambers.
In-person, The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
In partnership with Deka Chambers, 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square and Pump Court Chambers.
About this conference
We invite you to attend the Briefed Leadership & Wellbeing Conference, in partnership with Deka Chambers, Pump Court Chambers and 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, to hear from leading barristers, Senior Clerks and chambers CEOs to examine wellness from a business perspective, delving into the core components of the problem, and discussing strategies that leaders in chambers can implement to protect their key people, recruit new members and retain talent.
This will be a fantastic opportunity to have discussions with your peers to learn how other sets are handling some of the challenges and considerations that wellbeing brings.
Please see below for more information on speakers, panellists and the conference agenda.
AGENDA*
VICARIOUS TRAUMA AND POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
- Truly a Crime: When developing true crime documentaries, the TV and film industry are exposed to the same traumatic content that barristers are. Director of Compliance at A&E TV Networks, Sebrina Zeki, discusses how the broadcasting world manages risks around traumatic content and protects their staff.
- Simple Steps to Reduce & Resolve Vicarious Trauma: Routinely exposed to clients’ suffering and trauma, barristers are putting themselves at greater risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Former barrister-turned trauma coach, Camilla Wells, explores this and discusses ways we can all manage the risk, along with Farrhat Arshad KC, Doughty Street Chambers and Hala Mustafa, Coram Chambers.
ELITE PERFORMANCE & GREY AREA DRINKING
- Grey Area Drinking: Can you even clerk if you don’t drink? Senior Clerk at 5RB, Andrew Love, shares his experience of clerking from age seventeen, how alcohol played a part in his early success, and why he ultimately decided to break the mould and leave alcohol behind.
- Achieving Optimal Performance in Business, Life and Health: World-renowned speaker and entrepreneur, former professional athlete, and elite performance coach, Andy Ramage delivers an inspiring leadership session on the impact of alcohol on performance and what going alcohol-free can do for those operating at the top of their field.
MENTAL HEALTH
- Facing Mental Health Challenges as a KC: James Pereira KC recounts the challenges he faced, burning out just as he took Silk, and how he rebuilt himself and his life for sustainable success.
- Battling the Stigma of Men’s Mental Health at the Bar: – Historically, men have been reluctant to talk about their mental health issues. Nicholas O’Neill, Chambers Director and Chairman of the Merseyside Men’s Legal Wellbeing Group, shares his own personal experience and discusses how we can tackle the stigma surrounding the issue.
- Coping with Grief at Work: Keeley Lengthorn, Partner at Taylor Rose MW and Baby Loss Campaigner, shares her personal story of loss and her campaign to change the law.
- Discussion panel led by barrister, Imogen Robins, Pump Court Chambers & Legally Flushed.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
- Completing the Stress Cycle: In this informative and practical session, barrister-turned-tech GC and wellness founder, Natalie Connor, proposes an effective barrister’s guide to movement, mindfulness, and blood sugar regulation. Learn how these work together and can be used to combat professional stress in the unique world of the Bar where pressures are unapparelled
MASTERMIND SESSIONS FOR DEBATE
- Your wellbeing is your personal responsibility, not chambers’. True or False?: Led by Barrister and Head of Wellbeing at DEKA Chambers Helen Pooley, joined by Malvika Jaganmohan, St Ives Chambers, Nasreen Shah, barrister, Great James St Chambers and Rachel Bale, 3PB and Her Bar.
- Changing the Culture of Chambers: How can you move from a traditional culture of ‘stiff upper lip’ to embracing wellness as a key asset?: Led by Victoria Wilson, Joint Head of Goldsmith Chambers alongside Michael Harwood, Barrister and Emily Martin, Senior Clerk, 4-5 Gray’s Inn Chambers.
*Breakfast, lunch, refreshments & drinks reception also included.
Conference Speakers
*More to be announced
Trainer, Speaker, Coach & Author
Andy Ramage
Andy is a former professional footballer who has unlocked a major secret to business and life success that is almost universally overlooked. When an injury ended his playing career too early, Andy moved into finance and created two major brokerages. But he was struggling. Overweight, unfit, unhealthy, and unhappy. His business started to struggle. At breaking point something happened that was to change the course of his life and career.
He took a tactical break from alcohol and transformed his brokerage, health, wealth and relationships. The alcohol-free consistency, energy, vitality and improvement in mental health helped Andy to 7x his business when most people in the industry thought he would fail if he stopped drinking! There was no problem, Andy would describe himself as a middle-lane drinker, someone who would sometimes drink averagely, sometimes moderately, sometimes heavily and sometimes not at all. Which is the majority of business professionals!
Inspired, he wrote a book, ‘The 28-Day Alcohol-Free Challenge’ and ended up on some of the biggest podcasts in the world to share his story. Andy stepped down from his brokerage to start various entrepreneurial opportunities including Senca Peformance, OneYearNoBeer and the Dryy app. Andy also also works with city firms to design resilience and mental fortitude training for their elite business professionals.
You can train with Andy or contact him at www.andyramage.com.
Barrister & Co-Founder of The Libra Partnership
James Pereira KC
James Pereira KC is a pracitising barrister at Francis Taylor Building and co-founder of The Libra Partnership, which has a particular focus coaching members of the Bar to overcome challenges impacting professional performance and personal wellbeing. He is a certified coach, NLP master practitioner, and trained in systemic family therapy, trauma therapy and mindfulness. He is a LawCare Mental Health Champion and member of the InsideOut LeaderBoard. After facing and overcoming his own challenges at the Bar, James founded The Libra Partnership to bring to others the support which had been so effective in his own professional life.
Joint Head of Chambers, Goldsmith Chambers
Victoria Wilson
Victoria is a leading family law barrister at Goldsmith Chambers, where she is currently acting as Joint Head of Chambers.
She has been nominated as an Inspiring Woman Lawyer as part of a project hosted by the Oxford Faculty of Law and is also one of a small group of barristers across England and Wales to be selected for the inaugural Bar Council Leadership Programme.
Victoria’s drive to promote wellbeing at the Bar has led to her being elected as 2020 Chair of Wellbeing at the Bar Working Group and Chair of the FLBA Wellbeing Subcommittee. In recognition of her ongoing contribution towards promoting good mental health and wellbeing in the legal community, Victoria was appointed as a LawCare Champion in 2020.
Chambers Director, Oriel Chambers & Mental Health Advocate
Nicholas O'Neill
Nick is the Chambers’ Director at Oriel Chambers in Liverpool and is a well-respected voice supporting the importance of mental health in the legal profession. He is a Champion for the legal mental health charity Lawcare, speaking regularly on their behalf. Nick is a qualified coach/mentor and is the Chair of the Merseyside Men’s Legal Wellbeing Group.
Founder of Catch Yourself & former practising barrister
Camilla Wells
Camilla Wells founded Catch Yourself to offer programmes of support to the TV and Legal Industries to raise awareness and protection for those who are exposed to distress and trauma in their work.
Camilla practiced as a criminal and family law barrister for 22 years, encountering all manner of challenging cases involving drug trafficking, sexual abuse, coercive control, domestic violence, child abuse and abduction…. She brings decades of experience of working with highly confidential material and dealing with vulnerable clients to this sensitive area of workplace support.
She is passionate about safeguarding the wellbeing of those who work to tackle the most difficult aspects of human nature.
Having left the Bar 4 years ago, she undertook extensive training and has coached at all levels of TV Industry. Camilla is proud to be one of the first to work to raise awareness in relation to this extremely important subject.
Director of Compliance EMEA at A&E Networks
Sebrina Zeki
With more than 10 years’ experience as a senior broadcast compliance advisor for factual and entertainment television programmes, film, online and print content, Sebrina is currently the Director of Compliance at A&E Networks. Sebrina’s role requires a practical knowledge of broadcasting rules and a strong reputation as a relationship builder and trusted professional.
Responsible for the welfare of her team, Sebrina became aware that, much like lawyers, having to review, read and look at graphic and violent content was significantly impacting those around her. Over the past year, Sebrina has been instrumental in ensuring her team receive adequate training and support for dealing with traumatic content and the side effects that can be caused by vicarious trauma.
Barrister, Pump Court Chambers
Imogen Robins
Imogen is a leading barrister and arbitrator based at Pump Court Chambers. She is recommended in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners, specialising exclusively in the field of family law, with an emphasis on complex financial remedies cases. She is the Founder of Legally Flushed, an initiative aimed at connecting women lawyers and their allies, to enhance retention and wellbeing within the legal profession.
Clients value her approachable manner, meticulous attention to detail, and tenacious determination in handling sensitive matters across all levels of the family court system. She is an author, speaker and mentor.
Imogen founded Legally Flushed with a view to eradicating some of the unseen barriers to progression for career break returners and those entering peri/menopause. She aims to use her experience to champion the success of women in leadership roles within the legal profession, by supporting female lawyers in an inclusive environment.
Barrister, 4-5 Gray's Inn Square
Michael Harwood
Michael is a barrister at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, specialising in public, local government, regulatory and sports law, investigations and inquiries. He is an elected member of the Bar Council, and former Chair of the Young Bar (2023). In his career to date, he has worked with and as part of various wellbeing initiatives in the profession, including as a member of the Bar Council’s Wellbeing at the Bar working group, as well as speaking at various events and producing articles on this topic.
Senior Clerk at 5RB
Andrew Love
Andrew joined 5RB; a leading set of media and communications law barristers as a junior clerk as long ago as 1995, ultimately being appointed as Senior Clerk in 2016, a role he has held ever since. As well as leading a dedicated team of Clerks, Andrew’s role is crucial to 5RB’s success as he has a wide range of responsibilities for managing business operations and the strategic development of all members’ practices.
In 2020, after a number of years questioning his relationship with alcohol, something often very much intertwined in the culture of working in the profession, Andrew embarked on a one year no drinking challenge. This ultimately led him to become the non-drinker he is today.
As well as leading a compelling argument for assessing our own relationships with alcohol, Andrew’s experience asks what more can be done by those with a management/leadership responsibility in the legal world to support those working within it.
Barrister-turned-Tech Entrepeneur and Wellness Founder
Natalie Connor
Natalie practised at the Commercial Bar (7KBW and later 11KBW) for over 8 years before transitioning into General Counsel and director roles within disruptive tech. She recently sold a small FinTech company to Crowdcube (the European market leader in consumer crowdfunding) where she now works in a senior legal and strategy position. Alongside her work as a lawyer, and borne out of her own personal health journey at the Bar, she founded a wellness company – Elevate. – which introduces the world’s busiest professionals to longevity science and equips them with accessible tools to enable them to live better for longer and to elevate their professional capacity and performance.
Family Law Solicitor and Baby Loss Awareness Campaigner
Keeley Lengthorn
Keeley is an established family law solicitor and one of the leading baby loss awareness campaigners in the UK. Qualifying as a solicitor in 2008 and joining Taylor Rose MW in 2012, Keeley has been a partner at the firm since 2018. Keeley is the founder of “George’s Law”, which if enacted by the government will provide legislative protection for thousands of families in providing paid leave from work for losses under 24 weeks. Keeley has collaborated with Briefed to create a Workplace Pregnancy Loss training module in support of this, which has now been rolled out to more than 40 sets of chambers.
Barrister & Head of Wellbeing, Deka Chambers
Helen Pooley
A specialist civil practitioner practising predominantly in personal injury, clinical negligence and inquests. Called in 2012, Helen’s practice is varied and wide-ranging across these fields and she is listed in the 2024 Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 in both Clinical Negligence (Band 4/Tier 3) and Personal Injury (Band 4/Tier 4) and in Legal 500 for Inquests and Inquiries (Tier 5). She is regularly instructed in cases involving brain, spinal and other catastrophic injuries as both sole counsel and led junior counsel. She appears regularly in the Coronial Court and her inquest practice overlaps significantly with her clinical negligence work. As well as handling a complex caseload, Helen has taken the lead on promoting wellbeing at Deka Chambers – the work of the Wellbeing Committee is recognised as being crucial in Deka Chambers being a good employer and creating a safe and healthy environment for work and practice. Understanding that supporting the wellbeing of members and employees is instrumental to a chambers’ ability to develop and thrive, Helen has been on board with Briefed’s Leadership & Wellbeing Conference since the very start of the planning process, with Deka Chambers partnering with Briefed to deliver this event.
Register your place
If you would like to secure a place at the conference for yourself or a colleague, please click the link below to buy a ticket.
Please note that places are limited to two attendees per chambers set and priority will be given to Heads of Chambers and Senior Management.
Book your place
What is included:
- Panel discussion on topics such as Vicarious Trauma, Grey-area Drinking, Mental Health Awareness and more.
- Breakfast, lunch and refreshments
- Breakfast and post-event networking opportunities.
- Complimentary access to the Briefed Wellbeing Portfolio of eLearning (RRP £295+VAT)