Empathy: an essential element of legal practice or ‘never the twain shall meet’?

In a climate where the work of the legal profession is changing and evolving rapidly, this article considers the potential for empathy to be incorporated as an essential element of legal practice. This challenges the conceptions of legal practice held by many legal professionals and law students but draws on increasing scientific evidence demonstrating the interaction between cognition and affect and reflects the emotional realities of life in practice. This article will consider the different definitions of empathy and argue that it is necessary for it to be conceptualised in a way which draws upon both cognitive and affective elements. When empathy is interpreted in this way it can provide both a more effective form of practice and a deeper appreciation of ethics and values. This article will argue that to incorporate empathy in this way requires a richer, more nuanced consideration of the benefits and challenges involved in its use. However, embedding it throughout legal education, training and legal practice would more than reward such a careful evaluation of its role

What's culture got to do with it? The emotional labour of immigration solicitors in their exchanges with United Kingdom Border Agency case owners.

The Early Legal Advice Project (ELAP) was implemented in the Midlands and East region from November 2010 to December 2012, with the aim of improving sustainability, quality and cost of asylum decisions. It was recognised by those involved in the project that in order to achieve these objectives a 'cultural change' was required. This small empirical study forms the first part of a larger project, focussing on 'cultural change', and its meaning in relation to emotional labour expectations of immigration solicitors involved in ELAP. This study explores the emotional labour of immigration solicitors working within the current asylum process and specifically their exchanges with UKBA case owners. Furthermore, it emphasises the importance of understanding emotional habitus as a driver of emotional labour and the potential consequences of that performance. It is predicted that the 'cultural change' required will impact on the emotional labour and emotional habitus of solicitors. Consequently, emotional labour expectations must be considered when designing and implementing such schemes to facilitate successful outcomes

The emotional labour of doctoral criminological researchers

Embarking upon empirical qualitative research can be a daunting and emotional task, particularly for those who are new to research and for those who research vulnerable groups and emotive topics. Doctoral criminological researchers transect these realms, often making their research experiences acutely emotional and challenging. In addition, researchers must be able to perform emotional labour as an important part of their professional practice. Based on 30 semi-structured interviews, this is the first study to explicitly explore the emotional labour of criminological researchers. Using the lens of emotional labour, the performance and impact of undertaking qualitative data collection in doctoral research is examined. From the interview data, three main themes are discussed: emotional labour, the consequences of performing that emotional labour and coping mechanisms to deal with those consequences. The article concludes with recommendations around support and training for PhD candidates, their supervisors and the higher education sector more broadly

“It’s relentless”: the impact of working primarily with high risk offenders

This article uses empirical data to consider the impact that Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) has had on National Probation Service (NPS) probation officers in terms of the increased numbers of high risk offenders on the caseload. It was hypothesised by the researchers that the expectation that NPS probation officers would deal with more high risk offenders would result in additional pressure on them. While this is certainly the case for some probation officers who work in the newly created NPS, the data show nuance in terms of the effect this dramatic change has had on probation officers. The article shows that there are both benefits and disadvantages to having a caseload comprised primarily of high risk cases. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the findings in terms of the training and resourcing needs required by those NPS probation officers who are struggling with the shift to primarily high risk offender management

The Emotional Labour of Judges in Jury Trials

Judges are required to suppress and manage their own emotions as well as those of other court users and staff in their everyday work. Previous studies have examined the complex emotional labour undertaken by judges, but there is limited research on the emotion management performed by judges in their interactions with jurors. Drawing on a qualitative study of judge-jury relations in criminal trials in Ireland, we illustrate how judges learn and habituate emotional labour practices through informal and indirect processes. Judges describe managing their emotions to demonstrate impartiality and objectivity. Their accounts also underline the importance of balancing presentations of neutrality with empathy, as well as being mindful of the potential emotional toll of jury service on jurors

Law and emotions in "The Split"

The representation of female lawyers in film and television has long been indicative of wider issues of patriarchal crisis. Seminal works by Cynthia Lucia (Framing Female Lawyers, 2005) and Orit Kamir (Framed: Women in Law and Film, 2005) have alerted us to the ambivalent representations of female lawyers as personifications of progress, embodiments of social justice and epithets of powerful career women. Women lawyers, Lucia contends, regularly end up on trial themselves for violating norms of femininity and rebelling against patriarchal authority. This paper analyses the representation of female lawyers in the BBC drama The Split (2018–2022) and suggests a more positive reading of female ambivalence. The paper is informed by law and visual culture theory, professional identity theory and community of coping theory to shed light on the emotional complexities, tensions and conflicts that divorce lawyers manage daily

Managing emotion in probation practice: display rules, values and the performance of emotional labour by probation practitioners in their interactions with client

This article uses the concept of emotional labour to explore how probation practitioners, conform to, and negotiate the display rules and values underpinning their work with clients. We consider the sources of emotional labour, focussing on the values of probation practice and how these are manifested through occupational, organisational and societal display rules. We then analyse a further layer of display rules; integrating, neutral and differentiating display rules which further inform our thinking about how emotional labour is performed. Using the lens of emotional labour we document the breadth of emotional labour performed by probation practitioners in their interactions with clients including the use of empathy, humour and the suppression of anger. In particular our research brings to light the display of so called 'negative' emotions such as anger and frustration, and the complex, and sometimes conflicting, relationship between occupational and organisational display rules and the values underpinning these rules

‘I don’t like this job in my front room’: practising probation in the COVID-19 pandemic

The Exceptional Delivery Model (EDM) for probation practice in England and Wales meant that probation practitioners predominantly worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, engaging and supervising service-users remotely. This article exploresthe impact of the EDM on staff and their practice. We begin by considering how probation practice changed because of the implementation of the EDM and the impact that this has had on probation staff. The reality of probation work is brought into perspective when there are children in the home and the demarcation of work and home life is easily blurred, especially when considered through the lens of ‘emotional dirty work’. We then present analysis of interviews with 61 practitioners and managers in the National Probation Service. The interviews were primarily focused on staff wellbeing and emotional labour as opposed to the impact of the pandemic but participants regularly raised the pandemic in discussions. We focus on three key themes: the challenges of working from home and remote communication, experiences of managing risk through doorstep visits and the spillover of probation work into personal lives. The article concludes by considering what the findings tell us about probation work and potential future implications