The charity, which runs a helpline for the legal profession offering emotional support, dealt with 932 calls in 2018 from 624 callers, a five per cent increase on the number of calls in 2017.

The most common reason for calling was stress (26 per cent), followed by depression (19 per cent) and anxiety (11 per cent).

Calls about bullying and harassment have risen from 38 calls in 2017 to 68 last year. The majority of callers to the helpline were women (64 per cent) and 48 per cent were trainees/pupils or had been qualified five years or fewer.

Other issues included concerns about disciplinary proceedings (eight per cent), career development (nine per cent), chronic illness, alcohol and drugs, and relationship issues.

Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, said: “2018 was our busiest year to date on the helpline since we started over twenty years ago. Whilst we are pleased more lawyers are reaching out to us for support, we remain increasingly concerned about the long hours and heavy workload culture in the law which significantly affects wellbeing.

“We are particularly concerned about the number of callers citing bullying and harassment in the workplace, it is absolutely essential that legal practice organisations take steps to stamp this out and take the wellbeing and treatment of staff seriously.”

The Law Society of Scotland has resources for preventing and dealing with bullying and harassment, available on its website.