This article originally appeared in The Times (UK): Hannah Beko: ‘I burnt out — meditation helped me change my life’
By the age of 35 Hannah Beko had achieved more than she had ever expected — she was a successful property lawyer, had a dream house, a supportive husband and a happy family.
“I loved my job, I got to work from home. I was bringing in lots of work, doing a good job for my clients and I was a lot more successful than I’d thought that I would be,” Beko, now 44, says.
To outsiders, her life looked perfect, but on the inside, she says, “I felt like I was letting everyone down, including myself.” Beko explains that “I thought I was living my dream, but I wasn’t sleeping well, I was having stress reactions when emails or phone calls came in, panic and anxiety attacks and I wasn’t able to think straight.
“I had such high stress levels that rational thinking and making sensible decisions just became impossible.”
She knows now that she was exhibiting signs of chronic stress and burnout. And the turning point came when Beko’s father was diagnosed with cancer. The façade she had built “crumbled”, and she began to reassess her life choices. “I didn’t want to give it all up. I didn’t want to give up my business, but I needed to find a way out of how I was feeling.”
After struggling with her thoughts for a few months and keeping away from people, Beko began her quest for better health and happiness. Having prided herself on her self-reliance, Beko’s first step was to “learn to do what I have never done before — reach out for support”.
As a member of a women’s business network, Beko signed up, with her husband, for a two-day meditation course that was run by a fellow member. The leaflet promised greater focus and the ability to concentrate and be more organised. “I thought I needed all of those things,” Beko says.
She attended a six-week clinical trial during which they had to meditate for ten minutes every day. “That six weeks was enough to show me how powerful it was, and to embed it in my routine,” Beko says.
Making changes to her working life, she hired a paralegal and administrative assistant, and with the “window of space” that created, began to plan her next steps. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t just want to be doing full-time commercial property work,” she recalls.
At a coaching session, Beko realised that the other participants — lawyers and bankers — thought that the teacher did not understand their stressful working lives. And she realised that she could teach lawyers the skills that she had learnt. “I could explain this to them in a way that they would understand, because I am them. I’ve been there and worn the T-shirt.”
Her coaching led Beko to write a book, The Authentic Lawyer, providing strategies and tools for a balanced and successful career. Her top tip, as the title suggests, is to “be authentic — and bring ourselves to work”.
While Beko accepts that it is an overused phrase, she insists that for her that advice has been a “game-changer”. Having trained in trauma-informed counselling, Beko has recently started running one-day retreats focused on recovering from or avoiding burnout.
“In my view, most lawyers and law students I speak to are on the burnout curve at some stage,” says Beko, explaining that they are often forced to continue working while dealing with traumatic events and balancing family life.
Beko says, “if firms are serious about staff wellbeing, they should set rules about when people are required to log off”
Beko experienced a year of anxiety and grief when her sister was diagnosed with a rare form of post-pregnancy cancer, from which the family feared she would not recover. Her sister did recover — but Beko’s mother was then diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour and has since died.
Wellbeing, Beko says, is the joint responsibility of lawyers and their firms. But, she stresses: “When people are on that burnout scale, they won’t know it and won’t have the ability to make the right decisions to protect their mental health.” For that reason, she insists, managers must be trained to spot the signs.
“Has their billing, recorded hours or working time drastically increased or reduced? Looking at those metrics that the law is so good at tracking, firms should be able to spot most people who are on some level of burnout,” she says.
Beko is concerned that the focus in firms on mental health may put lawyers at risk of “wellbeing burnout”. “Everybody knows that they should take an hour for lunch, go to gym, eat healthily and meditate,” she explains, “but it just becomes another thing on their to-do list that is stressing them out.”
Lawyers are good at following rules, Beko says, “so if firms are serious about staff wellbeing, they should set rules about when people are required to log off”.
Born in Cambridge in 1980, Beko is the eldest of three children. Her father was a computer programmer and her mother trained as a nurse before qualifying as a counsellor.
“I was good at school and wanted a career that paid well,” says Beko, explaining why she chose to study law at Manchester University. “I wanted a desk, a briefcase and a computer and law seemed clean — I didn’t want to be a doctor or involved with sick people,” she adds.
After completing the legal practice course at Chester College of Law, Beko trained at what was then Beachcroft Wansbroughs, qualifying in 2005.
She moved to Eversheds (now Eversheds Sutherland), worked in-house for Derbyshire county council and became a self-employed consultant at Gunnercooke before joining her present firm, Legal Studio solicitors, in 2022.
Beko lives in Cheshire with her husband and family. She enjoys yoga, meditation and “loves a good retreat”.
But, she says: “My coach has told me that I can’t spend my free time learning about stress management and personal development, now that it’s my job”.
