The Solicitors’ Charity helped a third more lawyers in a single year than the year before, directing £1.2 million towards wellbeing support as the profession confronts pressures that have shattered the myth of legal invincibility.
Shams Rahman watched that surge unfold during his final months as Chair. After a decade on the Board—two years leading it—he stepped down on 11th February, handing the reins to I. Stephanie Boyce, former President of The Law Society. The timing feels significant. Demand for help isn’t slowing.
Rahman is a Partner at London firm Edwin Coe, where he heads Contentious Trusts and Estates and sits on the Management Board. He knows the profession’s rhythms, its expectations, its unspoken rules about resilience and competence.
Those rules are breaking.
“The legal profession is often defined by competence and resilience,” Rahman observed. “Yet one of the clearest truths I have learned is that lawyers are not immune to life’s disruptions. Illness, job loss, financial strain, and personal crisis do not distinguish between junior and senior, or between those who advise others for a living and those being advised.”
The 170-year-old charity has transformed during Rahman’s tenure—not just in reach, but in philosophy. What began as emergency financial assistance evolved into something broader: mental health counselling, career transition support, occupational therapy assessments, specialist equipment funding. A solicitor who loses their job needs more than a cheque. They need time, guidance, sometimes retraining. Occasionally, they need a wheelchair.
Rahman recalled moments that never generated press releases. “Helping someone regain independence by funding essential equipment such as a specialist wheelchair; supporting a solicitor who has lost their job and needs time, space, training, and guidance to find a way forward again.”
Those interventions happened quietly, away from annual reports and award ceremonies. Though one award did matter to Rahman: Charity Collaboration of the Year from the Association of Charitable Organisations, recognising the partnership with LawCare, the mental health charity for the legal sector.
“Being named Charity Collaboration of the Year at the Association of Charitable Organisation’s annual awards, for our partnership with LawCare, was a meaningful moment,” he said. “It recognised years of quiet, practical collaboration around mental health and wellbeing, and reinforced the idea that charities supporting the legal profession are strongest when they work together.”
The partnership with LawCare—which The Solicitors’ Charity part-funds—reflects a pragmatic truth. Mental health crises rarely arrive alone. They tangle with financial strain, workplace stress, personal trauma. Effective support requires multiple specialists working in concert.
The charity now collaborates with One Bright and Lawsight for psychotherapy, Renovo for career coaching, The OT Practice for occupational health, and CAM, Pennysmart and Cardiff & Vale Citizens Advice for money management. The network expanded in 2024 and 2025 as demand outstripped capacity.
By strengthening connections with local law societies across England and Wales, the charity made support feel less distant, less impersonal. Rahman highlighted the Bournemouth & District Law Society as an example of how regional commitment amplifies national reach.
“By strengthening ties with local law societies, we have made sure solicitors throughout England and Wales understand that support is accessible, personal and rooted in their own communities,” he noted. “The example set by organisations such as the Bournemouth & District Law Society reminds us that local commitment drives national impact.”
What changed most visibly during Rahman’s chairmanship was visibility itself. More solicitors now know the charity exists. More feel able to reach out without shame.
“As I step down as Chair, it feels like a wonderful journey, where brilliant progress has been made and will continue,” Rahman reflected. “After serving as a Trustee for ten years and as Chair for the past two, no one moment stands out from the rest – our work stretches well beyond any single initiative or headline. I have witnessed transformation both within the charity and across the legal community. More people now know who we are and what we do and feel able to come forward. We’ve done immense work in building our c.170-year-old brand and reputation to become known as the leading support for solicitors, whatever their needs may be.”
That cultural shift matters as much as the financial support. The legal profession has long prized stoicism. Admitting vulnerability felt like professional suicide. Rahman saw that calculation change.
“Bad things happen to good people, including highly capable solicitors who never expected to need help themselves and have devoted their professional life to helping others,” he said. “Providing support with dignity, discretion, and care has been at the heart of everything we do.”
The pressures fuelling demand aren’t abating. Cost-of-living increases hit lawyers as hard as anyone else, particularly younger solicitors carrying student debt whilst navigating expensive housing markets. Workplace stress intensified as firms demanded more billable hours. Remote working during and after the pandemic isolated practitioners who once found support in office camaraderie. Professional uncertainty mounted as automation threatened certain practice areas and consolidation squeezed smaller firms.
Rahman didn’t diagnose these trends in his farewell remarks, but he didn’t need to. The 33% increase speaks clearly enough.
The charity funds itself through donations from trusts, foundations, local law societies, firms, individuals, and unclaimed client balances. It operates a corporate giving scheme called Firm Friends, encouraging legal sector businesses to contribute regularly. Sustainability matters when demand keeps climbing.
As Rahman hands over leadership, the trajectory is clear. More solicitors need help. More are willing to ask for it. The infrastructure to respond exists, but requires constant expansion.
“As I hand over the leadership to I. Stephanie Boyce, former President of The Law Society, I am confident the charity’s direction is strong and its mission more vital than ever,” Rahman concluded. “The charity is reaching more people, responding to more complex needs, and doing so through collaboration rather than isolation.”
Boyce inherits an organisation transformed from emergency relief fund into comprehensive wellbeing network. She also inherits that upward curve in demand—a measure of both crisis and confidence, of need and willingness to seek help.
Whether the legal profession can sustain that openness, whether firms will address root causes rather than relying on charity to treat symptoms, remains uncertain. What’s clear is that the façade of invulnerability has cracked. Thousands of solicitors discovered they needed support they never imagined requiring.
Rahman spent a decade making sure help was there when they reached out. The question facing his successor is whether ten years from now, fewer solicitors will need to make that call—or whether the charity will be catching even more people as they fall.
