The 2019 Minds Count Annu­al Lec­ture was held at the Fed­er­al Court, Syd­ney on Tues­day 19 November.

The annu­al lec­tures were cre­at­ed to pro­vide a forum for the legal com­mu­ni­ty to come togeth­er and dis­cuss the issues we face as a pro­fes­sion regard­ing depres­sion and anx­i­ety. These lec­tures are aimed at cre­at­ing edu­ca­tion and aware­ness while also find­ing strate­gies to help improve the lives of those work­ing in or asso­ci­at­ed with the profession.

This year, the lec­ture was deliv­ered by David West­gate. David is a bipo­lar busi­ness­man, writer and men­tal health advo­cate and has had a long career as a high-fly­ing busi­ness­man work­ing in the field of adver­tis­ing. David decid­ed to blend his pas­sion and career to become a keynote speak­er for the Black Dog Insti­tute after being diag­nosed with Bipo­lar 1 and is now a pas­sion­ate pro­mot­er of men­tal health with­in the work­place whilst liv­ing a full per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life. We thank David for so open­ly speak­ing about his expe­ri­ences and shar­ing such prac­ti­cal tips on how to reach out to our colleagues. 

The speech was fol­lowed by an inter­ac­tive Q&A ses­sion with David West­gate & Dr Greg DeMoore (psy­chi­a­trist and Minds Count Board mem­ber) and was facil­i­tat­ed by Jerome Doraisamy (The Well­ness Doc­trines and Minds Count Board member).

Minds Count would also like to con­grat­u­late Her­bert Smith Free­hills and Claris­sa Ray­ward for win­ning the inau­gur­al Minds Count Awards for Best Men­tal Well­be­ing Ini­tia­tive and Indi­vid­ual Lead­er­ship in Legal Men­tal Well­be­ing. Their con­tin­u­ous work in pro­mot­ing men­tal health in the work­place is tru­ly inspir­ing and we look for­ward to hear­ing about what’s to come.

The Minds Count Foun­da­tion appre­ci­ates the sup­port and com­mit­ment from indi­vid­u­als to spread the word on men­tal health and to cre­ate change for the bet­ter. We look for­ward to work­ing togeth­er so we can improve men­tal well­be­ing across the legal pro­fes­sion and look for­ward to the lec­ture in 2020!


If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Q&A with Swaab's new building and construction partner, Mark Glynn

Why did you choose Swaab?When I first met with Mary Digiglio, Swaab’s man­ag­ing part­ner and Helen Kow­al, part­ner con­struc­tion and stra­ta and…

Might a Receiv­er of a dis­tressed devel­op­ment project owe a duty of care to sub­se­quent own­ers of the lots when completed?

Upon tak­ing pos­ses­sion and con­trol of an incom­plete dis­tressed devel­op­ment asset, a secured financier will more often than not look to…

No will, no direc­tion: The estate of Liam Payne and under­stand­ing law of intestacy

When Liam Payne sang ​“nobody can drag me down” we did­n’t think he was talk­ing about his aver­sion to sit­ting…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 20 May 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly…

Press Release | Swaab’s James Skel­ton Appoint­ed Chair of Glob­al Emerg­ing Lead­ers Advi­so­ry Board at Mer­i­tas AGM in Mex­i­co City

In this piv­otal lead­er­ship role, James will guide ini­tia­tives to strength­en rela­tion­ships among Emerg­ing Lead­ers across Mer­i­tas’ 175 glob­al mem­ber…

Press Release | New Part­ner Appoint­ment — Mark Glynn

With over two decades in the indus­try, Mark is a recog­nised front-end con­struc­tion lawyer spe­cial­ist with­in the build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try. Mark…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information