On 10 October 2025, IP Inclusive and Jonathan’s Voice co-hosted a webinar in recognition of World Mental Health Day for a discussion about supporting wellbeing in the IP professions. This webinar followed on from last year’s World Mental Health Day webinar on “Supporting staff wellbeing, mental health and work-life balance”.
The keynote speaker was Lisa Whittleton, consultant, trainer and founder of Illuminate VR Services Ltd. The panellists were:
- Jodie Bates, IT Trainer at Boult Wade Tennant
- Adeline-Fleur Fleming, Senior Managing Counsel at Mastercard
- Jonathan Foster, Lead IP Counsel at Ørsted
- Simon Keevey-Kothari, Barrister in the Transactions Group at Carpmaels & Ransford LLP
The event was chaired by Anna Molony, founder of Two IP.
The webinar helped us explore what really works in terms of supporting mental health at work.
Click here to access a recording of the webinar or to download the slides. Read on for our summary of the highlights.
Why are we here?
Lisa started her presentation with some shocking statistics from recent research, such as 42% of working adults in the UK have experienced a mental health condition in the past year, and 25% believe their job has a negative impact on their overall health.
This supports a strong business case for prioritising mental wellbeing to reduce absence, lower staff turnover and increase employee engagement and productivity.
What does high wellbeing look like?
- Feeling energised and positive emotional states
- Working well with others
- Getting things done – being productive and achieving our goals
- Feeling our work is worthwhile and valued
A 3-tier approach to supporting wellbeing
Preventative – Educating and keeping your staff well: things like working practices, policies, education, access to resources, and so on.
Proactive – Supporting those with warning signs of stress or ill health, for example by training managers to spot warning signs, conducting stress risk assessments and having action plans.
Reactive – Supporting someone who is unwell, for example by signposting, both internally and externally.
How managers can boost wellbeing
People managers
A key factor that can influence staff wellbeing is having dedicated people managers with appropriate training in people management. It can be helpful to think about people management separately from other management, in terms of allocating different managerial roles to different people, or ensuring all people managers have had appropriate training. It’s worth remembering some people might not wish to manage people, so perhaps your firm might consider allowing career progression that doesn’t involve people management.
Workload and boundaries
Manage workloads with regular check-ins and clear expectations, as well as modelling good boundaries. Consider measures such as maximum caseloads and avoiding performance-related bonuses.
Create clear, meaningful goals and expectations, working with each individual to identify motivators and build a sense of purpose.
Autonomy
Give staff control and autonomy and avoid micro-managing.
Communication
Good communication and feedback, including providing clear, timely updates and showing gratitude, recognition and acknowledgement.
Strengthen relationships and support. Create opportunities for connection. You may consider psychometrically validated tools to enhance understanding. Find the right balance for each person between challenge and support.
But for any of this to work, there needs to be a culture of psychological safety, where people feel safe to be vulnerable and speak out if they’re struggling without fear of negative consequence.
What next?
- Collect data to identify concerns, set priorities, drive initiatives and review progress.
- Emphasise your commitment to wellbeing, recognising this is a journey.
- Identify sources of workplace stress and a plan to minimise these.
- Review your policies and processes.
- Upskill managers in core people skills and encourage to lead by example on healthy habits.
- Embed wellbeing within all aspects of your business – offer 3 tiers of support (see above).
Panel discussion
What’s worked well
The panel then talked about what’s worked well in their organisations, and not so well.
Jodie mentioned the ‘feel-good club’ that her firm runs quarterly, where people get together for an extended lunch break and participate in craft activities whilst chatting. There are also posters in her firm’s communal areas and toilets with information and contact details for support available both internally and externally.
Jonathan spoke of managers in his organisation, at every level, addressing psychological safety and open, honest conversation in company ‘town hall’ meetings, as well as focussing on wellbeing and kindness to others. He finds this to be a really strong message from his company.
He also spoke extremely positively of the two separate streams of progression within his organisation – subject matter experts and people leaders. These are two separate training and promotion routes. As an individual, you can choose your focus at any point in your career and switch between the streams as well.
Adeline talked about how her in-house department is a signatory to the Mindful Business Charter and the kinds of wellbeing resources that are available to staff internally. She also described how she aims to build an open relationship with the external counsel she works with, giving them permission to turn down an urgent piece of work if they don’t have the capacity, without any negative impact on their future work allocation.
Simon talked about how helpful mental health first aiders have been in supporting members of his firm, particularly with issues like anxiety, isolation and bereavement. He also talked about his role as a peer supporter at LawCare. LawCare matches a caller dealing with a particular issue to a peer supporter with similar experiences. Talking in a confidential, non-judgemental space and finding common ground with the peer supporter often allows the caller to open up and feel less isolated.
Anna’s firm has reimagined how attorneys work, giving them total control over when, where, how and with whom they work, with no billing targets, to promote work-life balance and wellbeing. As a remote working firm, they address isolation by regular catch-up meetings, as well as quarterly in-person meet-ups.
What’s not worked so well
The panellists shared a few things that haven’t worked so well in promoting wellbeing, including resources that weren’t targeted to the intended audience or were presented in a lecturing or critical tone (rather than in a positive frame). A disconnect between how organisations talk about mental wellbeing and their work culture was also seen as problematic, such as if the culture is to regularly work long hours, then any signposting to mental health resources looks like a quick fix, rather than addressing the root of the problem.
Please get in touch
Jonathan’s Voice would be delighted to hear from you if you’d like to discuss your own organisation’s needs in more detail. They can provide free advice, seminars, workshops, talks and other forms of support and are happy to visit you in person: contact them via their website or email [email protected].
You can contact IP Inclusive by email [email protected].