myCILEx

Welcome to myCILEx

CILEx’s exclusive members' area

myCILEx provides you with information on the work CILEx is doing on behalf of its members

For the latest branch events in your area, visit: www.cilexbranches.org.uk

The number of CILEx Judges is increasing!

Gennaro Baffa FCILEx is the latest of our members to be included on the Our CILEx Judges webpage.

Gennaro was appointed a Legally Qualified Chair of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in June 2019. He chairs a panel of tribunal members, and hears cases that are brought by the General Medical Council against doctors and determines fitness-to-practice issues. He also sits alone and makes orders following a review of the papers.

He applied for a judicial role, in January 2019, and was appointed following a rigorous and challenging selection process.

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Building your resilience

Elizabeth Rimmer, LawCare CEO, advises on how to keep going.

Resilience is the ability to adapt and bounce back when things do not go as planned, and is a key quality we need to foster in order to keep going over the coming days and months, and face the inevitable challenges ahead.

Resilience is vital in order to survive and thrive in the current climate and people will be able to utilise their skills and strengths to cope and recover from problems and challenges.

In his bestselling book, ‘The resiliency advantage: master change, thrive under pressure, and bounce back’, Al Siebert writes: ‘highly resilient people are flexible, adapt to new circumstances quickly, and thrive in constant change. Most important, they expect to bounce back and feel confident that they will.’

This expectation is closely linked to a general sense of optimism – not a quality lawyers are trained to develop – but it is, nevertheless, possible to develop the right mental attitudes to cope, and even flourish, when the going gets tough.

Key qualities of a resilient person

  • Holding positive views of yourself and your abilities
  • Being able to make realistic plans and stick to them
  • Having an internal locus of control - attributing your success to your own behaviour rather than luck or fate
  • Being a good communicator
  • Viewing yourself as a fighter rather than a victim
  • Having emotional intelligence and being able to manage your emotions effectively

Ten tips to build resilience

Recognise that this situation is temporary: things will change over the coming weeks and months.

Don’t give in to negative thoughts about the future. Challenge them and ask whether those thoughts are true or realistic.

Learn to see challenges, mistakes and failures as valuable learning experiences. If we can survive this, we will be stronger.

Use humour to defuse and downplay diffculties. Laugh at yourself, and situations, laugh with colleagues, friends and family.

Be flexible. Recognise that nothing stays the same and don’t get too stuck in thoughts of how things used to be.

Take care of your physical and mental health. Get enough sleep, exercise and eat well. When your physical self is in good shape, you’re less fragile.

Take time off work, use your holiday entitlement, and make sure you take breaks during the working day.

Recognise that a bad situation is usually temporary. Don’t extrapolate one bad situation into another and catastrophise – one day at a time, it is pointless worrying about the future.

Give yourself a pat on the back when things go well. Be kind to yourself and forgive yourself when things go wrong. Treat yourself occasionally.

  • LawCare provides emotional support to all legal professionals, support staff and their families. You can call the confidential helpline on 0800 279 6888, e-mail: support@lawcare.org.uk or access webchat and other resources at: www.lawcare.org.uk
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