ZICO Law commits to Mindful Business Charter to foster better working practices for mental health and wellbeing
ZICO Law has signed the Mindful Business Charter, joining a wide range of businesses and law firms in a collective commitment to address the avoidable stresses in our working practices to promote healthier and more effective ways of working.
The Charter, originally launched by Barclays and law firms Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard, brings organisations together to reach a shared agenda for mental health wellbeing.
At an event marking the two-year anniversary of the Charter’s launch, ZICO Law will pledge its commitment to abide by a set of principles centred on improved communication, respect for working hours and considerate delegation of tasks.
The Mindful Business Charter aims to promote a culture of openness about mental wellbeing, ensure responsible business is included as an area of assessment during significant procurement processes and drive forward the actions and necessary change in support of the principles of the Charter.
Hanim Hamzah, Regional Managing Partner at ZICO Law commented,
“Having been fervent advocates of the MBC since 2019, we are proud to finally be a signatory and help lead the charge for mental health issues in the legal industry across Southeast Asia. We hope our fellow firms embrace and implement the MBC’s principles so that we improve the legal industry together.”
Speaking on behalf of the founding group, Philip Aiken, Managing Director at Barclays said:
“ZICO Law’s wholehearted engagement with the Charter demonstrates its passion and belief in inspiring positive change. Our initial vision for the MBC was to bring banks’ in-house legal teams and their legal services providers together to reach a shared agenda for mental health and wellbeing. It has been central to the way in which we have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. The growth in signatories in the UK and globally, within the legal profession and across a broad range of industries, and the consolidation of the Charter into a CIO, encourage ever more hope of a working world in which these principles are applied in all organisations and across all sectors.”
Richard Martin, director of byrne·dean and leading on their Charter work, said: “MBC’s call to be more mindful of the way we work and its impact, and its insistence on openness and respect at the heart of our professional relationships, resonates ever more profoundly in a working world beyond our comprehension a few short months ago. Few of us have experienced a period of such collective angst, uncertainty and wholesale change. Our reactions to that, and our ability to work effectively through it, will define the world of business, and the health of those working in it, for decades. We are reshaping what work means. It is fantastic that ZICO Law is joining the movement at this critical time. At byrne·dean we exist to create kinder, fairer, more productive workplaces and so the Charter lies at the heart of our purpose.”
The Charter has the support of mental health charity Mind, the City Mental Health Alliance, the International Bar Association, the Law Societies of England and Wales and of Scotland, LawCare and the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.
For media inquires, please contact Hua Sia Yen, Partner at Zaid Ibrahim & Co and Chair of ZICO Law’s Total Wellness Initiative.