Speakers

Richard is the CEO of the Mindful Business Charter, a cross business initiative to reduce the stress we experience at work and which is a key cause of workplace mental illness. He is also a principal consultant at workplace consultancy Byrne Dean and chairs the steering committee of the Lord Mayor of London’s This is Me campaign which uses story telling to break down the stigma associated with mental illness. He is a qualified coach and mental health first aider. His first career was in law, a successful progress as an employment lawyer to the highest levels of leadership before mental breakdown in 2011 left him in hospital for a month and unable to work for two years. His experience of breakdown and recovery is the subject of his memoir, This Too Will Pass – Anxiety in a professional world, published in 2018. He is a father of three grown up children and splits his time between London and rural France.

LawCare is the mental health charity for the legal sector across the UK, offering free, confidential emotional support, peer support, and information to people working and training in law.  LawCare also advocates for better working practices in law to support mental health, and actively leads cultural transformation through education, training, and research.

Elizabeth has been managing and developing charities in the mental health sector for over 20 years.  She joined LawCare in 2014. Elizabeth started her working life as a solicitor specialising in clinical negligence, practicing at Leigh Day. Elizabeth is Co Chair of the Helplines Partnership (national body for support and advice helplines) and a member of the International Bar Association’s Professional Wellbeing Commission and chairs the Commission’s regulatory and ethics workstream group.