The Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) provides a unique service for the ABA membership. During this time of career and financial uncertainty, lawyers are experiencing new stress and trauma as a result of the recession and national belt-tightening in the profession. Law firms are finding it necessary to reduce their lawyer and support staff numbers and are in some instances closing firms. The states that have staffed lawyer assistance programs (LAPs) can provide peer support for individuals and referrals to counseling—career, mental, and financial. The lawyers helping lawyers component of LAPs has existed from the beginning and continues to be of critical assistance in times of relapse, stress, and trauma. These volunteers can share a special bond and understanding, which has been found to be true in other professional peer support programs as well.

During an extended recession in the 1980s, researchers at Johns Hopkins University were able to correlate a statistical significance between economic factors, such as joblessness and social harms, with alcoholism and suicide. The data showed that for each one percent rise in unemployment, suicides increased 4.1 percent; homicides, 5.7 percent; deaths from heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and stress-related disorders, 1.9 percent; and admissions to mental hospitals, 2.3 percent for women and 4.3 percent for men. Although data and intuition imply that unemployment and lack of hope, both common in recession, are correlated to addictive behavior, a cause and effect relationship cannot be automatically implied. The legal profession has previously reached number one in another Johns Hopkins study that ranks professionals in rate of depression and suicide. We are seriously concerned that these numbers will continue to increase.

After September 11 and the Katrina disaster, the lawyer assistance programs’ staffs were ready to evaluate the needs of the individual lawyers asking for support. CoLAP’s mission is to promote these services and get those in need to the appropriate resource. By calling CoLAP’s hotline (1-866-LAW-LAPS), our staff will provide phone numbers for LAP staff or volunteers who can listen and guide them through the initial crisis. LAPs can provide a lifeline for action, which can hopefully avoid a later headline.

Model Rule on Conditional Admission to Practice Law (Revised August 2009)

Model Law Firm/Legal Department Personnel Impairment Policy and Guidelines (Adopted August, 1990)

Guiding Principles for a Lawyer Assistance Program (Adopted February, 1991)

ABA Model Rule 8.3 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Revised 2001)

Model Lawyer Assistance Program (Revised 2004)

Resolution 121 requiring continuing legal education on substance abuse/addiction