Health benefits for partners and leaders in law and finance

What the evidence shows in the legal sector

People across the legal profession report low wellbeing and a high risk of burnout, partners included. The Life in the Law 2025 survey received 1,541 responses from people working in law, and 21.7% of them described their role as partner, director or equivalent [1].

Across the sector, 59.1% had poor mental wellbeing, and the average burnout score was 37.8, above the 34.8 that marks a high risk of burnout [1]. Work intensity explains much of it. In the same survey 78.7% were working beyond their contracted time, and 8.5% estimated they worked 21 or more extra hours a week [1].

Many people keep it to themselves. Nearly a quarter, 24.1%, had not disclosed their mental ill health at work [1]. For partners, who carry the firm’s reputation as well as its clients, the care that gets used is the care that stays private.

What long working hours do to heart health

Long hours carry a measured risk to the heart and brain. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that working 55 hours or more a week, compared with 35 to 40 hours, is linked to a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease [2].

The joint estimates found 488 million people, 8.9% of the global population, working 55 hours or more a week in 2016, and attributed 745,194 deaths from ischaemic heart disease and stroke to that exposure [3]. These population figures describe risk across many people and say nothing certain about any one person, which is why a partner’s own numbers matter.

For a partner, the practical response is a regular review with a physician who measures the risks that matter for them, alongside a frank conversation about hours and sleep that the partner can have in confidence.

Why senior leaders carry a different load

Leaders in every industry report more strain than the people they lead. A global workplace survey found leaders more likely than individual contributors to report a lot of stress the previous day, by 7 points, and loneliness, by 10 points, with 46% of leaders reporting stress and 31% loneliness [4].

In law and finance that load usually arrives with travel and with client hours across time zones. A plan that covers the family, and that works in each city the partner visits, removes the small frictions that keep senior people from seeing a doctor at all.

What a health plan for partners should hold

A partner’s plan should make the first conversation with a doctor easy and the long view of their health continuous. Same-day access matters for the illness that arrives before a closing or a trial. A physician who sees the same person each year matters for the slower risks that long hours raise.

Keep the periodic review focused on measures with evidence behind them. Blood pressure is one, and the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for hypertension in adults 18 years or older [5]. Long lists of tests add less than they suggest. A Cochrane review of 17 trials found that general health checks had little or no effect on total mortality [6].

Mental health care for partners works when it is clinical and confidential. A partner should be able to reach a psychiatrist or psychologist directly, without a referral through the firm, and the firm should see only anonymised reporting.

Families belong in the same plan. A partner who knows that a child’s fever at midnight or a spouse’s scan will be arranged by the same concierge spends less of the working day on it, and is more likely to use the care themselves.

Questions to ask before you choose a plan for your partners

The answers show whether the plan will be used by the people it was bought for.

• Can a partner speak to a doctor the same day, in every city where the firm works?
• Does the same physician follow each partner from one year to the next?
• Can a partner reach mental health care directly, without going through the firm?
• What does the firm see, and are small groups left out of every report?
• Are spouses and children covered on the same terms?
• Who arranges appointments around a diary that changes by the hour?
• How many contracts, suppliers, invoices and renewal dates will the firm hold?

What The Wellness for teams does

The Wellness for teams is one membership for the whole firm, its partners and leaders, and their families. It holds inpatient, outpatient and dental care, diagnostics and health programmes in 13 cities, and a concierge arranges everything. Doctors are GMC registered, and care is given through registered partner clinics and accredited laboratories.

The firm receives one invoice, renewed once a year, and sees anonymised reporting only, with small groups left out, under a data processing agreement. Outside the United States it takes the place of national plans at renewal, and in the United States it is the global layer above the medical plan. Partners can start in one morning and the firm within 10 days.