How To Manage Workplace Stress As A Legal Consultant

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Keep a little perspective
• Become a nature lover
• Be proactive
• Mind your gut
• Consider meditation
• How Nexa Law can support your legal consultancy

Introduction

The 7 April 2025 was World Health Day, marking the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1947. A year later, we saw the founding of the NHS. Over the last 78 years, healthcare across the world has become unrecognisable. For example, the worldwide life expectancy in 1950 was 45.5; in 2025, it is 81.88, thanks to the dramatic fall in infant mortality. Another fundamental change that has occurred more recently is the increased recognition of the importance of mental health and how maintaining it is just as crucial as looking after your physical body. For legal consultants, balancing client demands and family life, as well as carving out a little time for yourself, is challenging. One advantage of working in a New Model Law Firm is the support that is provided in terms of finance, administration, as well as being able to talk things out with managers and other consultants. In addition, there are several things you can do to manage workplace stress, outside of the usual actions everyone knows about, such as eating healthily, plus moving and sleeping more.

Keep a little perspective.

This one is tricky when you’re in the thick of things but crucial to your overall mental health. Regardless of how demanding a client is being, unforeseen delays, or just too much work on your plate, no one is going to come and machine-gun you to death. This may sound a little dramatic, but it is so easy to become overwhelmed and lose total perspective, especially when you’re dealing with several files at once and there is a problem with all of them. 

There are many ways to regain perspective, including asking yourself whether the problem you’re facing will matter in a week, month, or year from now, or simply stepping away from your desk and going for a quick coffee with a colleague and chat things through. If all else fails, jump on YouTube and watch some comedy clips for ten minutes. Laughter is a well-recognised stress reliever.

Become a nature lover

The Princess of Wales recently commented about how nature became her family’s “sanctuary” last year following her surgery and preventive chemotherapy for an undisclosed cancer. Nature is also a proven stress reliever. Researchers in 2019 asked 36 people to spend 10 minutes or longer, three days a week for eight weeks, in an outdoor place where they could interact with nature. The settings varied and they either walked or sat during their nature time. Cortisol was measured, and the study concluded that spending at least 20-30 minutes immersed in nature dramatically lowered cortisol levels.

Be proactive

A new study, which analysed data from over 18,000 participants across 125 countries, found that proactive stress-management practices—particularly planning and prevention—were more effective than reactive methods. Proactive stress management can include scheduling regular breaks, investing in massages or other stress relieving treatments, and turning off your email and phone notifications at certain times of the day so you can focus on complex tasks.

Mind your gut

The latest research on stress management looks to the gut rather than the head. Studies show that the gut microbiome regulates the body’s diurnal (day-night) rhythms in stress hormones. Depletion of gut microbiota results in disruptions in the brain’s core circadian system and is associated with altered stress hormone rhythms.

You can improve your gut health by:

• Eating at least 30 servings of plants per week.
• Reducing your intake of processed foods.
• Filling up on ferments such as live yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut. 
• Leave a 12 hour gap between your last meal in the evening and breakfast the next day.

There is also a wide range of probiotics that can help reset good gut bacteria.

Consider meditation

People have known about the benefits of meditation concerning stress relief for thousands of years. Research shows that cultivating a meditation practice can decrease levels of stress and anxiety. It has also been proven to promote other benefits that are incredibly useful for legal practitioners, including improving attention spans and memory and decreasing blood pressure.

How Nexa Law can support your legal consultancy

Joining Nexa Law allows you to transition seamlessly into the world of consultancy. We provide administration, IT, finance, and marketing support and will do everything possible to help you minimise stress whilst maximising your earnings.

If you’re thinking of launching your own legal practice, please give us a call. We would love to hear about your commercial ambitions and tell you how we can support them. 

Schedule a call or fill in our contact form.

We look forward to celebrating your success