Jyoti Choitram was appointed to as A&O Shearman’s first Global Senior Wellbeing Manager in 2022. Her objective in this newly created role was to embed a sustainable, evidence-based approach to mental wellbeing across more than forty offices in the law firm.

Creating a global minimum standard for workplace wellbeing

Jyoti led the creation of A&O Shearman’s global wellbeing framework. Drawing on industry best practice, she developed data-driven Global Minimum Standards for workplace mental wellbeing, which have been endorsed by the Board and ExCo.

These standards set clear workplace wellbeing expectations for all A&O Shearman’s offices on workplace wellbeing, while allowing local flexibility, and provide a firm-wide blueprint for healthy, high-performing work. The framework assigns clear accountability to Mental Health Advocates, HR teams and Managing Partners, with global KPIs and a dashboard to track progress. It is reviewed regularly by the Global Wellbeing Advisory Board and the Board.

To help offices achieve standards, Jyoti introduced a range interventions, including stigma challenging campaigns, on-demand training for all employees and dedicated modules for people managers

During the complex A&O Shearman merger in 2024, Jyoti led the way on ensuring that wellbeing remained an essential pillar of the firm’s Employee Value Proposition.

Healthy, sustainable ways of working

Jyoti is committed to ensuring a sustainable way of working, she forges alliances with HR, Development, Inclusion, Resourcing, Pro Bono, and Risk, embedding wellbeing throughout the employee life cycle and consistently reviewing ways to monitor employee workloads in a sustainable way.

Securing senior leadership support

Jyoti recognises senior sponsorship is critical. She supported a group of committed senior leaders to deliver a workplace wellbeing session at the first A&O Shearman global partner conference. Here they clearly communicated the message and evidence that wellbeing is a business imperative and driver of sustainable high performance.

She also brings senior leadership together regularly in regional groups to secure their sponsorship of, and engagement with, wellbeing initiatives in their regions. These meetings also provide a platform for leadership to share wellbeing challenges and discuss priorities in their respective offices, which informs future action

She collaborates with the firm’s forty-plus global partner Mental Health Advocates – senior leaders who champion wellbeing internally – equipping them with briefings and coaching. Jyoti amplifies the leadership voice through a partner-only podcast where she pairs A&O Shearman leaders with clients to normalise discussions about sustainable high performance.

Jyoti recognised that senior leaders themselves lacked support, so she took the initiative to convene a cross-functional working group to design a Partner Wellbeing Programme.

Internal initiatives that drive wellbeing and challenge stigma

Her ‘This Is Us’ storytelling campaign featuring colleagues from across the world has reduced stigma.

Recognising that wellbeing does not exist in a silo, Jyoti partners with the Inclusion team to provide solutions to the different employee networks. She brings in speakers and themes that focus on the intersection between mental health and other areas of diversity.

Establishing a sustainable global network of wellbeing champions

Jyoti has also established a strong and engaged virtual global community of Wellbeing Champions. She has introduced a governance structure, manages regular meetings of the group, and ensures they have the necessary skills through the development of an accredited CPD.

Achieving impact beyond the firm

Jyoti understands the importance of sharing the work that A&O Shearman does externally and has organised individual LinkedIn training to develop the confidence and story-telling abilities of senior leaders on this subject. She also drafts talking points for leaders’ external panels, ensuring consistent, aligned messaging.

Jyoti herself frequently shares her expertise and experience to third-party partners and peer firms, sharing frameworks and data to elevate industry standards.

Based in Dubai, she convened senior wellbeing advocates from multiple organisations – a new regional coalition who now meet regularly to drive collective change. In London she designed a sequence of closed-door workshops for clients, bringing in external clinicians and client partners to create safe spaces where c-suite leaders can share their challenges and leave equipped with practical actions to drive change in their organisations.

She is currently working on a doctorate exploring validated model for sustaining partner performance. This research that will be made publicly available and is expected to inform discussions on lawyer wellbeing. By leveraging her role as catalyst Jyoti is affecting sector-wide progress beyond her formal job description.

Positive impact

The positive impact of Jyoti’s work is felt daily by more than 6,000 colleagues worldwide.  Jyoti’s strategic vision, operational rigour and empathetic leadership have cemented wellbeing as a central pillar of the firm’s culture and employee value proposition, and she is helping to set a new benchmark within the legal sector.