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18 April 2025
Issue: 8113 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Health , Career focus , Mental health
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NLJ this week: Proactive wellbeing not ‘crisis management’ at the Bar

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Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, sets out her plans to pilot reflective practice—an approach used successfully by doctors, social workers and other stress-ridden professionals—at the Bar, in this week’s NLJ.

Pilots will run between May and November for three cohorts: family and criminal; commercial and chancery; and employed barristers. Improving mental health and wellbeing is one of Mills’ priorities for this year.

Mills explains the reasons she values a proactive approach rather than ‘crisis management’, and how reflective practice, where barristers have regular, confidential check-ins with a professional, works to benefit practitioners. 
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NEWS
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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