The Mindful Business Charter is a set of principles designed to reduce unnecessary stress in professional services by encouraging better communication, clearer expectations and more respectful ways of working.
It focuses on practical behaviours such as avoiding unnecessary urgency, respecting downtime and improving coordination between teams and external advisers.
Within legal teams, it is often used as a framework to support healthier working practices while maintaining high-quality delivery and strong client service.
Key points
- Seen as positive – The Charter is viewed as a helpful and sensible framework for improving working culture and reducing unnecessary pressure.
- Already embedded in some organisations – In some sectors (e.g. higher education), many of its principles are already reflected in existing wellbeing and working practice policies.
- Focus on external behaviour matters – One key lens is how panel firms and external advisers behave (e.g. out-of-hours emails, continuity of junior staff, tone of communication).
- Procurement and oversight opportunity – The Charter (or similar principles) can be used in panel selection and tender processes to assess how firms manage wellbeing and working practices.
- Respect for time and sustainable working – Strong emphasis on protecting rest, managing expectations, and avoiding unnecessary urgency while still delivering high-quality legal work.
I hadn’t come across this before and while it is inherent A Good Thing, because I work for a University, a lot of what’s in here is baked into our existing wellbeing strategies and so on for our teams.
What I have learned from other GC’s is to look at the way our panel firms behave in relation to their staff – are we always receiving emails out of hours? Do juniors disappear from cases without notice? What is the tenor of their correspondence with other lawyers on a matter?
I might then be more likely to ask a question in a tender process for our panel about the Mindful Business Charter or at least how they work to the same principles. I wouldn’t want to be instructing a firm, where my instruction contributes to the poor wellbeing of a lawyer in another organisation.
Sam McGinty – Director of Legal Services, University of Nottingham
I wasn’t familiar with the Mindful Business Charter before being asked about it, but after reading through it I think it’s a really valuable resource — especially in the legal sector. We work incredibly hard to support our colleagues and the business, but it’s just as important to do that in a way that’s mindful and sustainable.
The focus on respecting people’s time, rest, energy, and capacity is important to me. It’s a good reminder that we can deliver excellent work without creating unnecessary pressure or urgency, and that looking after ourselves and each other ultimately helps the business too. I will be sharing this with my team.
Camilla Beevor – in-house Lawyer at Historic Royal Palaces
Charter looks very good though I would encourage more face-to-face meetings rather than virtual ones.
Ian White - In-house legal consultant