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

10 year long stop on build­ing defect claims rein­forced for con­tri­bu­tion claims

The recent deci­sion in For­tius Broad­way No 1 Pty Ltd V ACN 103 211 141 Pty Ltd (for­mer­ly known as Wat­pac Con­struc­tion…

A High­er Evi­den­tiary Bur­den for Work Orders: The Prac­ti­cal Impli­ca­tions of The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 102171 v Ceerose Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CATCD 137

The deci­sion in The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 102171 v Ceerose Pty Ltd; Zone Q Mil­sons Point Devel­op­ment Pty Ltd v Ceerose…

Impor­tant Work­place Rela­tions Changes Effec­tive 1 July 2026

Employ­ers and employ­ees alike should be aware of impor­tant changes in the work­place rela­tions are­na, effec­tive 1 July 2026. From that date:the…

In the News

Roger Corn­forth Retires Fol­low­ing 45 Years of Dis­tin­guished Legal Practice

Roger’s career has been defined by trust­ed rela­tion­ships, prac­ti­cal advice and an unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to his clients. Begin­ning his legal…

Protest group los­es appeal to obtain gov­ern­ment documents

The cas­es — Mudgee Region Health Alliance v Min­is­ter for Finance, Domes­tic Man­u­fac­tur­ing and Gov­ern­ment Pro­cure­ment and Nat­ur­al Resources [2026] NSW­CATAD…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, The PM v work­place stan­dards”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 8 July 2026

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“The PM v work­place stan­dards”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 8 July 2026To read the…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information