Legal Off the Leash

Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future!

In this beautifully tender and surprisingly funny episode, Elizabeth and Scott sit down with writer and diabetes advocate Bridget McNulty, author of Daily Glimmers. Bridget unpacks the transformative practice of noticing “tiny joys” and how this simple act became a lifeline through profound grief. From the neuroscience of micro-joys to the brutal honesty of living (and working) while heartbroken, Bridget shows why every lawyer needs glimmers: not as toxic positivity, but as a grounded, evidence-backed mental health tool for surviving modern life.

🔑 Key Themes

Glimmers vs. Happiness: Why micro-moments of joy matter more than chasing big highs.

Grief & Joy Intertwined: How profound loss reshapes attention, perspective and emotional capacity.

Nervous System Science: What glimmers do physiologically and why lawyers need this reset.

Attention as a Daily Choice: How news, screens and overstimulation steal our inner quiet.

Humanity at Work: Why breaks, nature, silliness and softness make us better professionals.

💬 Memorable Quotes
“It was so all consuming. It was like a fire that blazed through my life and it just burned everything to the ground.”

“Even in those awful days… there were still these tiny little moments… the only chinks of light that I could find.”

“Joy comes from inside. Happiness is dependent on outside factors.”

“Glimmers calm your nervous system… even if it’s only for a couple of seconds.”

“We’ve stepped away from being human to such an extent that we do need to remind ourselves.”

“Everyone deserves a life that’s full of the beautiful ordinary.”

 

📌 Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways

Grief destroys your emotional scaffolding, but micro-joys rebuild it. Glimmers act as tiny anchors when everything else feels unrecognisable.

Joy is internal, gentle, and sustainable. It stabilises the nervous system in ways happiness can’t.

Attention is the real battleground. Without intentional practices, the modern world defaults us into stress, reactivity and emotional depletion.

Glimmers aren’t a project; they’re a lens. They don’t add to your to-do list, they shift how you see what’s already there.

Lawyers need humanity breaks. High-pressure cultures, billable hours and perfectionism numb us to the very moments that support wellbeing and resilience.

Meaningful careers require meandering. The linear “achievement timeline” is a myth; fulfilment comes from permission to explore.

 

You can find Bridget on Linkedin and Instagram.

 

And you can buy 'Daily Glimmers: The Art of Finding Tiny Joys Every Day of the Year' here.

Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future!

In episode 12, we’re back—candid, chaotic, and deeply human. After a short break, they reflect on Christmas, the realities of therapy and mental health, and why empathy matters more than ever in law. What begins as a light-hearted catch-up turns into a powerful conversation about catastrophising, client behaviour in the age of AI, and how lawyers can learn from medical professionals when it comes to trust, reassurance, and communication. This episode sets the tone for 2026—and for a profession ready for a do-over.

🔑 Key Themes

Returning with intention: pauses, rest, and reflection matter

Catastrophising vs clarity—what lawyers can learn from healthcare professionals

Therapy, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence as professional skills

Clients, AI, and the danger of judgment instead of empathy

The shift from “hard skills” to human skills in the age of automation

Letting go of rigid goals and holding ambition lightly

💬 Memorable Quotes
“Everybody should get therapy. And it's not because you think something's wrong or because there's something wrong. It's for anybody.” — Scott

“You don't cure depression, depression cures you.” — Elizabeth

“When you catastrophise, you lose like, I think it was 20 IQ points.” — Elizabeth

“You can sit there and be frustrated about the fact that people are going online, or you can understand and accept that this is the world we're living in.” — Scott

“Hold your goals lightly.” — Elizabeth

📌 Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways

Empathy beats expertise alone: Clients who arrive with Google, AI, or half-formed conclusions aren’t being difficult—they’re anxious. Meeting that anxiety with empathy builds trust faster than dismissing clients as diffilcult.

Therapy builds better professionals: Self-awareness improves communication, leadership, and resilience—not just personal wellbeing.

AI doesn’t remove the human role: Clients often ask the wrong questions. The lawyer’s value lies in diagnosis, framing, and reassurance.

Human skills are the differentiator: As technical tasks become automated, connection, confidence, and clarity become core professional assets.

Goals are fine, attachment isn’t: Focus on process, not perfection. Growth comes from consistency and kindness, not self-judgment.

Welcome to Episode 11 of Legal Off The Leash with your hosts Scott Simmons and Elizabeth De Stadler as they take a nostalgic journey through the first 10 episodes of Legal Off the Leash. From funny anecdotes about getting started to deep dives into the challenges of the legal profession, this episode offers a candid reflection on their podcasting journey.

Discover the recurring themes, memorable guest insights, and the evolution of their dynamic (and sometimes strange) partnership. Whether you've been listening since episode 1 or new to the show, this retrospective is filled with laughter, learning, and a look at what's next for the podcast. Tune in for a blend of humour, honesty, and heartfelt moments that define Legal Off the Leash.

Key Themes

A candid look back: how the show started, what surprised Scott & Elizabeth, and how it’s evolving.

Billable hour obsession: why it keeps showing up in every episode and why it matters.

Editing chaos: pauses, dropped audio, accidental comedy, and finding a rhythm.

Authenticity and “power skills”: essential for sustainable legal careers.

Overwork ≠ excellence: cultural myths that harm learning and wellbeing.

The profession’s problem with “yes culture”: How it shapes behaviours and careers.

Legal design uncovered: a structured problem-solving process, not just visuals.

Psychological safety takes centre stage: real research on lawyers and burnout.

A hopeful future: more joy, better habits, and braver conversations ahead.

 

Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways 

Repetition drives change: key issues need to be challenged often.

Don’t glorify exhaustion: clients pay for outcomes and guidance, not fatigue.

Protect mentoring: juniors need time to learn, not just to bill.

Pause before “yes”: sustainable careers require boundaries.

Try pricing the value: unlock better service quality and sanity.

Legal design = process: use it widely, not just in contracting.

Safety unlocks performance: psychological security fuels retention and innovation.

Great communication is crafted: editing improves everything - including podcasts.

Connect with your hosts

Scott Simmons

Elizabeth De Stadler

Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future!

In this episode, hosts Elizabeth de Stadler and Scott Simmons sit down with Dr Emma Clarke, an organisational psychologist based in Amsterdam whose PhD research uncovered the structural and cultural forces driving burnout and turnover in law firms.

Emma explains her three-factor model of psychological safety — barriers and blind spots, leadership behaviours, and access to resources — and shares how hierarchy, billable hours and gendered time use reinforce an unsafe culture. She also talks about her AI-powered platform to detect early warning signs of workplace risk before they lead to harm.

Key Themes 

Psychological Safety Defined: Why it’s the foundation for culture, performance and well-being.

Structural Challenges: Hierarchy, billable hours, and gender differences compound stress.

The Three-Factor Model: Barriers & blind spots, leader behaviours, and access to resources.

Role Modelling Matters: Leaders’ behaviours cascade down, shaping what juniors see as “normal.”

Tokenistic Wellbeing: Why individual-focused initiatives fail without systemic change.

A Preventative Platform: Using AI and psychology to surface risks before they harm people.

 

Memorable Quotes 

“Psychological safety is a belief or a perception that people have about their environment.” — Emma Clarke

“Psychological safety is foundational. It's the foundation to culture. It's a foundation to performance. It's a foundation to well-being, engagement, retention, all of those great things.” — Emma Clarke

“There’s three critical factors… barriers and blind spots, the leader behaviours and the resources. These are the three critical factors that are important to build psychological safety.” — Emma Clarke

“Leaders think the reason people are leaving is X. When you talk to employees they say Y.” — Emma Clarke

“A number of times I heard in my research about leaders just going mental because something had happened… Everybody’s observing this and seeing that this is what happens if we make a mistake.” — Emma Clarke

“In my last performance review… you could have been good this year, but because of your health we can’t give you a good score because you didn’t do enough hours.” — Research participant quoted by Scott Simmons

“Law firms have to be really brave… if they want to retain talent, improve well-being and reduce burnout.” — Emma Clarke

“The hierarchy, this formal hierarchical structure creates a really unsafe environment for people.” — Emma Clarke

“This is not a hostage situation.” — Elizabeth de Stadlerish

Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways 

Audit your blind spots: Leaders often misdiagnose why people leave because staff don’t feel safe to tell the truth.

Reward behaviours, not just billables: Promotion criteria should include emotional intelligence, fairness and empathy.

Make wellbeing collective, not individual: Stop framing burnout as a personal failure — address the system.

Plan long-term: Law firms must look beyond each financial year to invest in future talent and sustainable culture.

Challenge definitions of success: The “big law or bust” mindset traps lawyers in unhealthy environments.

Leverage transferable skills: Law degrees equip graduates for many careers — it’s not a hostage situation.

Connect with Emma Clarke

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmaclarke/

Headspace Consulting: headspaceconsulting.co

To take part in the pilot programme, contact Emma at https://helderinsight.com/.

Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future!

In this episode, Scott Simmons and Elizabeth de Stadler dive into the world of legal design — what it really means, why it matters, and how it transforms the client experience. Forget about “slapping some icons on a contract” or “making things pretty.” As Elizabeth explains, legal design is about functionality, empathy, and solving real problems for clients.

From the importance of onboarding and websites to the plain language revolution in contracts, this conversation cuts through misconceptions and shows how design thinking can reshape legal services for the 21st century. And yes, there’s even talk of “fast caterpillars” and how bad templates fuel bad AI.

Key Themes

What Legal Design Really Is: Not decoration — but applying design thinking to law with empathy at its core.

Beyond Contracts: Why websites, onboarding, and the entire client journey matter just as much as documents.

Plain Language, Real Change: Contracts should preserve relationships, not fuel litigation.

The Template Trap: Copy-paste culture has killed critical thinking in law.

AI’s Fast Caterpillars: Without transformation, AI just makes bad contracts faster.

Human-Centric Law: Practising this way isn’t just better for clients — it makes lawyers happier too.

Memorable Quotes

“Most people we talk to think that it's a matter of slapping some icons on a document. Or we get a lot of people say, well, you're going to make it pretty, aren't you? And I go, no, we're going to make it functional.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

“Transformation is like turning a caterpillar into a butterfly, but if you make changes without the transformation bit, all you get is fast caterpillars.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

“Clients are not coming to lawyers to buy their attention in six minute increments. They're coming to lawyers for outcomes and solution and support.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

“A contract should be about, not about dispute resolution, but about dispute elimination.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

“Good contracts don't get litigated.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

“Practicing human centric law is more gratifying and contributes more to your wellness than the old way.” — Elizabeth de Stadler

Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways

Start with empathy: Map out your users’ needs, frustrations, and expectations before designing processes or documents.

Fix the basics: Websites, onboarding, and client communication set the tone long before contracts come into play.

Plain language = trust: Contracts should clearly define roles and responsibilities to eliminate disputes, not feed them.

Kill the boilerplate habit: Stop clinging to irrelevant or outdated clauses “because they’ve always been there.”

AI isn’t magic: If your templates are poor, AI just reproduces poor work faster. Clean up before automating.

Lawyer wellbeing matters: Human-centric design improves not only client trust but also lawyers’ mental health and job satisfaction.