May 31, 2022
By its very nature, criminal law sees a greater prevalence of
mental health issues than most other practice areas, requiring many
lawyers in this space to be “quasi mental health practitioners” as
well as legal service providers. Managing this, on top of vicarious
trauma, can be trying.
On this episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, host Jerome Doraisamy
is joined by Dowson Turco Lawyers partner Nicholas Stewart to
reflect on the myriad mental health concerns that affect criminal
law clients and vulnerable communities in Australia, how such
health issues have been exacerbated during the age of coronavirus
and how these issues have changed the nature of legal service
delivery in this time, and the extent to which criminal lawyers are
required to go above and beyond in their care for the wellbeing of
clients.
Mr Stewart also discusses the scourge of vicarious trauma, the
difficulty criminal lawyers may have in working remotely from
clients, how change can be effected in being able to better cater
to mental health concerns, and how the past two
years have changed his perspective on what it means to be
a good criminal lawyer.
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