Abstract

In recent years the issue of wellbeing has moved centre stage across jurisdictions within a wide range of debates relating to economic, cultural and political changes associated with neoliberalism. This is the backdrop against which the legal profession has itself begun to pay increasing attention to the issue of wellbeing in law. This article explores an aspect of this debate that has tended to be neglected thus far, namely the relationship between the neoliberal corporatisation of universities, gender and questions of wellbeing in the legal profession and law schools. It assesses the meaning of wellbeing in the context of law and considers changes in universities that, it is argued, have reshaped understandings of the academic subject and academic labour in ways that have potential implications for this debate around wellbeing in law. Focusing on gendered dimensions of these shifts, the article argues that the growing literature around wellbeing raises significant questions about legal ethics, values and gender equity in law, as well as about legal professionalism and the place and purpose of legal education and research. Arguing against an individualising logic that would depoliticise personal experience, the paper suggests a complex re-gendering of social relations is having contradictory implications for understanding these contemporary debates around wellbeing, equality and diversity in law