A former law firm recruiter is seeking to establish what drives unacceptable behaviour in the legal profession and the impact that it has on lawyers.

Rebecca Michalak, sessional lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of Queensland Business School, is undertaking her research through two online surveys. Legal practitioners are being encouraged to participate in the surveys, which are anonymous and take no longer than 25 minutes.  “Understanding workplace behaviour is important for ensuring that people have positive experiences in their workplace and that employees are able to enjoy the time they spend at work,” said Michalak. “The more data we get the more useful the findings will be.” The data will be used in her PhD and given to participating law societies across Australia and New Zealand in late 2012 to better assist them in understanding what factors contribute to depression, anxiety and self-destructive behaviour within the legal profession. “The aim is that law societies will be able to disseminate information about what, for example, coping strategies work the best,” added Michalak.

A variety of research is already available and suggests that lawyers are one of the most at risk professions in Australia for depression and anxiety: “They also tend to self medicate, with alcohol and other substances,” said Michalak. “What I’m looking to do is find out more about what is causing that behaviour and what the profession is doing about it.”

For example, there are certain organisational factors across other industries which have been researched and found to contribute to negative or unacceptable behaviour, and some of these are evident in the legal profession too: “If we know that a particular leadership style is associated with a particular style of behaviour then we can look at improving leadership training. Again that’s not an issue that only effects the legal profession,” said Michalak. However, leadership and how managers interact with staff is just one area of the study. For lawyers interested in participating please visit http://tinyurl.com/c22mjhm for more details.

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