Navigating Legal Ethics and Well-Being with Lucinda Soon

Apr 15, 2025

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Hi there and a very warm welcome to Season 6 Episode 21 of People Soup, it's Ross McIntosh here.

P-Soupers - In this episode I continue my chat with Lucinda Soon. Lucinda is a qualified solicitor and expert in professional ethics, well-being and legal services regulation, she's also a PhD candidate at Birkbeck, University of London. Lucinda's People Soup ingredients are curiosity, learning, courage and being of service.

You'll hear Lucinda discuss her interest in viewing ethics through a psychological lens, emphasizing the challenge of adhering to ethical standards amid workplace stress and structures. She introduces concepts such as 'bad apple' vs. 'bad barrel' to explain unethical practices spurred by stressful environments. Lucinda also explores the emerging focus on lawyer wellbeing, discussing the pervasive issues of burnout, stress, and dissatisfaction tied to traditional practices like billable hours. She shares insights from her research, which includes a synthesis review on lawyer wellbeing, identifying differences and similarities in wellbeing determinants across different legal contexts (e.g., city law firms vs. legal aid). Lucinda emphasizes the importance of context-specific approaches and concludes by sharing personal strategies for maintaining her own wellbeing while juggling extensive research and professional commitments.

For those of you who are new to People Soup - welcome - it's great to have you here - I aim to provide you with ingredients for a better work life from behavioural science and beyond. For those of you who are regular P Soupers - thanks for tuning in - we love it that you're part of our community.

There is a transcript for each episode. There is a caveat - this transcript is largely generated by Artificial Intelligence, I have corrected many errors but I won't have captured them all! You can also find the shownotes by clicking on notes then keep scrolling for all the useful links.

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