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

Assess­ing Scope 3 Emis­sions: An analy­sis of the impli­ca­tions of Den­man Aberdeen Muswell­brook Scone Healthy Envi­ron­ment Group Inc v MACH Ener­gy Aus­tralia Pty Ltd [2025] NSW­CA 163 (the Mount Pleas­ant decision)

Intro­duc­tionOn July 24, 2025, the New South Wales Court of Appeal (NSW­CA) deliv­ered a land­mark rul­ing in Den­man Aberdeen Muswell­brook Scone…

Work­place Rela­tion­ships: The Legal Posi­tion (Cold­play Con­cert Edition)

The recent sto­ry of col­leagues (a Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer (CPO)) whose appar­ent rela­tion­ship was cap­tured on…

Dis­missal for Dissent?

The recent unfair dis­missal deci­sion of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion, Shaun Turn­er v Dare­bin City Coun­cil [2025] FWC 1763, in which Deputy…

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