Jump to Navigation | Jump to Content
 American Bar Association - Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice ABA Logo

Highlights Newsletter Archive
ABA CoLAP

Fall 1998 Issue

Table of Contents

Appointments:

Philip S. Anderson, President of the American Bar Association has made the following appointments to the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs for the 1998-99 Association Year. Mr. Anderson assumed his position as president of the ABA immediately following the ABA Annual Meeting this past August in Toronto, Canada. His appointments to the Commission will begin at the conclusion of the meeting as well.

Mr. Edwin L. Blewer, Jr. of Shreveport, Louisiana will succeed Michael J. Crowley of Austin, Texas as Chair. This is a one-year appointment, and Mr. Blewer is eligible for reappointment for up to three years. Mr. Blewer is a well recognized bar leader from Louisiana and is active in the ABA and state, local and specialty bar associations. He is completing his service as a member of CoLAP. He has chaired the Commission's Disciplinary Survey Committee and served as vice-chair for the Commission's Speakers' Bureau Committee. Mr. Blewer played a major role in the development of the Louisiana State Bar Association Committee Alcohol & Drug Abuse and has chaired it for many years. He also was actively involved in the creation of their Lawyer Assistance Program and the recruiting and hiring of its first director. He has overseen the funding, staffing and expansion of a program, which is today very successful. Mr. Blewer has assisted several other bar associations in the development of their lawyer assistance programs. He is a great asset to the Commission and he is willing to serve, as chair, where he will use his extensive contacts with bar leaders and recovering lawyers from around the country to further the work of the Commission.

 Seven members will be returning to the Commission for another year. They are John C. Brownrigg of Omaha, Nebraska; Michael J. Cohen of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; John P. Corderman of Hagerstown, Maryland; Professor Michael Distelhorst of Columbus, Ohio; Lea R. Landmann, of Deerfield, Wisconsin; David R. Pfalzgraf of Buffalo, New York and Judge Ronald D. Thom of Oregon City, Oregon. We welcome their continued participation.

New to the Commission are the Honorable Harriet L. Turney of Phoenix, Arizona and Dr. Linda A. Teplin of Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Teplin works in the Psycho-Legal Studies Program at Northwestern University Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. In the past she has served on the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Her work at Northwestern involves research on addictions and other impairments. Judge Turney is a familiar name and face to the Commission. She served as General Counsel for the State Bar of Arizona after serving as Chief Bar Counsel for nine years. She helped draft rules adopted by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1991, creating a cafeteria of options in the lawyer discipline system, including the diversion program, new professionalism programs, including peer review, and professionalism course required of recent admittees to the bar. She assisted in the expansion of the diversion program in 1994, and the development of a mediation program to provide additional alternatives to traditional lawyer discipline. Judge Turney is a former Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers' Responsibility for Client Protection and most recently was working with Messrs. Michael Crowley and Don Jones on the Model Recovery Monitoring Guide and has spoken several times at our National Workshops. She serves as Chief Administrative Law Judge at the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

Leaving the Commission are Michael J. Crowley who was involved from 1991-1995 as a member and 1995-1998 as Chair. Bonnie Waters has served on the Commission from 1995-1998 and has been the chair of the National Workshop for Lawyer Assistance Programs for the past two programs. They will both be greatly missed, and will continue to support our efforts and be available as resources.

Comments from the New Chair:

I am deeply honored to have been appointed by President-elect Philip S. Anderson to serve as your new chair for 1998-99, and very nervous about following in the footsteps of W. Stell Huie, John W. Keegan and now, Michael J. Crowley, all three great leaders. Some of my goals include:

1. Prioritize outreach efforts to the ABA Membership through the Sections and other entities within the ABA and work with the specialty bars in the development of a lawyer assistance program clearinghouse within their bar association.

2. Continue the Commissions push to identify and jump start programs in states and areas in need of LAPs.

3. Continue the high quality workshops with emphasis on the basics of establishing and maintaining Lawyer Assistance Programs.

4. Provide ongoing support to existing Lawyer Assistance Programs and services to the ABA and its staff, where appropriate.

Midyear Meeting - Los Angeles/Beverly Hills, California

The next meeting of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs will be held in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills, California, in connection with the ABA Midyear Meeting. All meetings will be held at the Century Plaza Hotel unless otherwise specified. The following meetings are set:

My Los Angeles

The ABA Section on Torts and Insurance Practice has a newsletter, TortSource, that contained an entertaining article on "My Los Angeles," by Mark Sklan. They have given permission to reprint it for you. Enjoy.

Places to Go: My single favorite place in LA is the Huntington Library's Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens (Oxford Road, San Marine). The Robber Baron of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Henry Edwards Huntington, spent his millions wisely. A man after my own heart, he bought books. See the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a holograph of Call of the Wild, and manuscripts of Civil War letters. The gardens feature a classical Japanese garden (complete with hidden bamboo tea room), a lily pond (complete with turtles and koi), and a dazzling collection of desert plants. The special exhibition of the life of George Washington (it promises 130 manuscripts) will be on display. February is a perfect time for an afternoon at the Huntington. For an "only in LA" experience try the Museum of Jurassic Technology (9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City; 310/836-6131). The Museum has the feel of a Victorian eccentric collecting the odd and obscure wherever found, crossed with the ironic sensibility of the 90's. The exhibits in natural history and history of science are mixed with details from the work of Madelena Delani, a singer of art songs and operatic material, and Geoffery Sonnabend, a neurophysiologist and memory researcher. Don't miss the Treasures of Southern Nebraska. The Simon Rodia Center (1765 E. 107th St., LA) is the home of the eight Watts towers. No one can fail to be moved by the risks taken for art. How did he climb that high to put ceramic scraps into concrete no one would ever see? What was he saying to himself and to us? Or is the message just to demonstrate how much one man can do if he does not watch TV? In any event, the Towers are well worth the drive to Watts.

Food: Monterey Park is home to the best Asian food outside of Asia. Dragon Regency (120 S. Atlantic, Monterey Park; 818/282-1089) and Ocean Star (145 N. Atlantic, Monterey Park; 818/308-2128) offer massive menus (in English!) and real Asian food prepared for real Asian tastes. A large group is most welcome and gives a chance to try more items. If those places are too crowded just go up the street until you find another place with low-cost lobster and crab in the tanks. Eat where the stars eat. Try breakfast at the Polo Lounge (Beverly Hills Hotel; 310/276-2251), lunch at The Ivy (113 N. Robertson; 310/274-8303), or - yes! - dinner at Spago (8795 Sunset; 310/652-4025) - just do not expect a great table (though you will get great service and fine food for the price). Locals do not rush up to a table and ask Babs to sign the menu or ask if the Puckster is tossing pizza in the oven. You can always try Pink's Famous Chili Dogs Hot Dogs (709 N. La Brea Ave., LA: 213/931-4223) late to see if the Spice Girls are recording and need a dog. When shopping on Melrose for the perfect nose ring try Mo Better Meatty Meat (7261 Melrose Ave., LA; 213/935-5280). When shopping in Santa Monica try to stop at Babalu (1002 Montana; 310/395-2500) for jerk chicken and dessert.

Lawyers love famous courthouses, so a stop at the Santa Monica Courthouse is likely. There you can see why the most recent "trial of the century" was held downtown. The cramped courtrooms could not hold the briefcase carriers and cell phone minders. Across the street from the courthouse is the headquarters of RAND where the best minds of the last generation planned for nuclear war and now try to sell studies of the civil justice system (related topics in LA). They look out over the ocean and a sculpture of a mushroom cloud on the courthouse lawn. Next is the Third Street Promenade where the panhandlers are subject to licensing and the street performers are more talented than most stuff on TV. Enjoy LA. Use a rental car to see more than Rodeo Drive and Century City. Lastly, if you want to go to the Getty Museum, call them NOW: 310/440-7300.

AROUND THE LAPS:

Note from Donna Spilis: Many thanks to the LAPs that send information for inclusion in this section of "Highlights", and also to the ABA Division for Bar Services, whose staff regularly send clips related to the work of LAPs from state and local bar association journals and newsletters.

Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia Joint Effort: The Third Annual Step Study Retreat for Lawyers in Recovery sponsored by The Lawyers Assistance Programs of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina for attorneys and law students in recovery is scheduled for Friday, May 21-23, 1999. The Retreat will be held at The Summit, and Episcopal Center in Brown Summit, NC that is located north of the city of Greensboro. The facilitator for the Retreat will be Ray O'Keefe, a well-known speaker and retreat leader who is also an attorney. Registration is being handled this year by the Virginia program. Interested attorneys should contact Susan Pauley, Director of Lawyers Helping Lawyers in Virginia at 804-644-0041.

New Jersey: The New Jersey Lawyers Assistance Program celebrated its Fifth Birthday on December 1, 1998. Program Director, Bill Kane, also reports that they now offer twelve lawyers concerned for lawyers support groups with two new meetings in Camden and Sussex counties.

North Carolina: The PALS Annual Meeting and Workshop was held on November 6-8, 1998 at Mid-Pines Inn & Golf Club in Southern Pines, NC. The meeting kicked off on Friday afternoon with new volunteer training session. Saturday's presentations included: "Effective Lawyer Intervention When Families are Involved," "Being an Effective Peer Counselor Volunteer," a panel discussion on "Effective Intervention Under the Bar's PALS Rules," "Treatment for Alcoholism & Other Drug Addictions in 1998," "What Recovering Lawyers Can Do to Affect This System" and "Marijuana In the 90's." The final session, held on Sunday was on "Spirituality and Recovery."

The PALS program will sponsor a Second Stage Recovery Workshop for PALS members this summer. The workshop offers a tremendous opportunity for participants to deepen their recovery. The workshop is scheduled for the weekend of August 28-29, 1999. The workshop is limited to 25 participants and the estimated cost is $300, which covers expenses for the weekend. Ernie Larsen will present the workshop. He is a nationally know author and lecturer and also a pioneer in the field of recovery and the originator of the Stage II Recovery process.

Virginia: Effective January, 1999, there will be a new chairman of the VBA Substance Abuse Committee. His name is Thomas O. Bondurant of Richmond. The VBA LAP will be printing and distributing a new Handbook for Volunteers and Local Committees the first few months of 1999. This includes guidelines for the activities of volunteers and the formation of local committees (community based groups of volunteers). It also will have resource information. If anyone is interested in a copy, they can contact Susan Pauley, director, at 804-644-0041.

Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina are again co-sponsoring a Step Study Weekend Retreat for Attorneys again in May of 1999. It will be held at the Brown Summit Conference Center in North Carolina (located north of Greensboro) on May 21-23. Ray O'Keefe will be the facilitator of the Step Study and time is being scheduled for the participants to discuss ideas and issues their lawyer assistance programs are having. Information on registration and costs will be mailed to the volunteers in those four states after the first of the year. Anyone wanting information can contact Susan Pauley at 804-644-3212 or Don Carroll at 704-892-5699. The first retreat was co-sponsored with these states in spring of 1998. It was well received by those attending so a repeat performance has been requested.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

  • February 3 - 9, 1999: ABA Midyear Meeting - Los Angeles, California CoLAP Business Meeting will be held Saturday, February 6, 1999, at the Century Plaza Hotel in the Plaza Room from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Contact: Debi Taylor, 312/988-5325
  • February 16 - 20, 1999:Southern Coastal Conference on Treatment and Addiction, Jekyll Island Hotel & Resort, Jekyll Island, GA, Contact: Dr. Conway Hunter, 912-638- 5530
  • May 21-23, 1999: Third Annual Step Study Retreat for Lawyers in Recovery, sponsored by The Lawyers Assistance Programs of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina, The Summit and Episcopal center in Brown Summit, NC (located north of Greensboro). Facilitator for the Retreat will be Ray O'K. Contact: Susan Pauley, Director of Lawyers Helping Lawyers in Virginia at 804-644-0041.
  • June 3 - 5, 1999: 25th National Conference on Professional Responsibility, San Diego, CA, Contact: Brad Hoffman, 312/988-5305
  • August 5 - 11, 1999: ABA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia
  • August 28-29, 1999: Second Stage Recovery Workshop for PALS August 28-29, 1999. The workshop is limited to 25 participants. Facilitator: Earnie Larsen, Contact: Don Carroll, Director, Positive Action for Lawyers, 704/892-5699.
  • September 29 - October 1, 1999: 12th National Workshop for Lawyer Assistance Programs, Skamania Lodge - Portland, Oregon/Stevenson, Washington, Contact: Debi D. Taylor, 312/988-5325 or Donna Spilis, 312/988-5359
  • October 1 - 3, 1999: ILAA - Skamania Lodge - Portland, Oregon/Stevenson, Washington, Contact: Donald Muccigrosso, 503/226-3316 or 503/231-9998
  • February 8 - 15, 2000: ABA Midyear Meeting - Dallas, Texas
  • July 6 - 12, 2000:ABA Annual Meeting - New York, New York
  • July 15 - 20, 2000: ABA Annual Meeting - London, England
  • February 14 - 20, 2001: ABA Midyear Meeting - San Diego, California
  • August 2 - 8, 2001: ABA Annual Meeting - Chicago, Illinois
  • February 2 - 12, 2002: ABA Midyear Meeting - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

The 1998 Marty Mann Award was presented to Charlotte S. at the NJLAP's Women Attorney Peer Counselor's Annual Dinner. Marty Mann was the first woman to stay sober in Alcoholics Anonymous and the founder of the National Council on Alcoholism.

NJLAP Clinical Associate Denise Malinowski and Attorney Coordinator Ray Ortiz completed courses of study at the internationally renowned Rutgers Summer School of Alcohol Studies.

North Carolina Justice John Webb was honored at the PALS Annual Meeting and Workshop this past November as the 1998 recipient of the Chief Justice's PALS Award for outstanding service and commitment to PALS.

Iowa has hired Hugh Grady as the new Program Director for its Lawyers' Assistance Program. Hugh started his new position on December 1st. You can reach him at 3000 Grand Avenue, Suite 204, DesMoines, IA 50312; 1-800-243-1533 or 515/277-3817. His e-mail address is hgg119@aol.com

Don Jones, Director of the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program, has been promoted within the Texas State Bar. He will be the director of the Strategic Planning Department. Ann Foster has been promoted to the position of Director of TLAP. A brief description of the open Assistant Director's position is published on our website at the "Positions" page.

The Colorado Lawyers Health Program has just hired Jerome V. Porter as an assistant for its director, Les Crispelle. Many of you met Jerry in Montreal at the National Workshop for Lawyer Assistance Programs. You can reach Jerry at Colorado Lawyers Health Program, Suite 507-S, 600 - 17th Street, Denver, Colorado 80202-5435; 303/825-7076 or 800-432-0977. His Fax is 303/825-7079 and e-mail address is Jerome_V_Porter@msn.com

Patrick Reily and his longtime companion, Dale, eloped and were married on November 10th by Dale's brother-in-law in Columbia, S.C. Congratulations, Pat, it's about time you did the right thing!

Bill Leary, Director of the Louisiana LAP, celebrated his 20th year of sobriety on December 4, 1998.

Donna Spilis, Staff Director to the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs, completed all coursework for her Masters Degree in Human Services/Addiction Counseling.

AMERICAN REPLACES UNITED AIRLINES FOR ABA MASTER CALENDAR MEETINGS AIRLINE DISCOUNT PROGRAM.

We are pleased to welcome a new airline as part of the Master Calendar Meetings Airline Discount Program. Because of the outstanding savings that American Airlines has offered the ABA, it will be replacing United as our Preferred Carrier for Master Calendar meetings. Delta and US Airways will remain preferred carriers. American Airlines 1-800-433-1790 Star File # - - S11565 10% off any fare - roundtrip or one way Zone Fares (7-day advance purchase domestic U.S., Hawaii, Mexico and Canada; 14-day advance purchase Caribbean; 30-day advance purchase Europe; refundable less $75 service fee; no Saturday night stay required) Additional 5% off any published fares - first class, restricted and unrestricted coach - purchased 60 days in advance Delta Air Lines 1-800-241-6760 Account # - - 121710A 10% off first class and unrestricted coach fares 5% off any published fare Zone Fares (7-day advance purchase North America; refundable less service fee; no Saturday night stay required) Additional 5% off any published fare - first class, restricted and unrestricted coach - purchased 60 days in advance U S Airways 1-800-334-8644 Account # - - 2190057 10% off unrestricted coach fare 5% off unrestricted coach and first class fares Additional 5% off all fares purchased 60 days in advance

Passing the Bar…..Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of an ABA Triumph

By Larry Smith, Editor, Of Counsel
September 21, 1998, Vol. 17., No. 17 (Reprinted with Permission of Of Counsel)

"It's the greatest thing that's ever been achieved under the [sponsorship of] the ABA," says Edwin Blewer, describing the American Bar Association's Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. The commission is an information clearinghouse as well as an umbrella group supporting the expansion of state bar efforts to assist impaired lawyers, mainly alcoholics and drug addicts. Blewer is probably a mite prejudiced since he's the incoming chairman of the commission and has been a member through most of its 10-year existence. Yet the best way to celebrate this year's landmark anniversary may be to simply acknowledge that, prejudiced or not, Mr. Blewer makes a very good point indeed.

The commission, which now has 10 lawyers and one permanent staff administrator, was formed in 1988 when interested ABA members took a look around the country and saw only a precious handful of heartfelt efforts by local bar groups to address this increasingly critical problem. Lawyers and judges in some states like Ohio had been investing a lot of time and effort since the 1970s. Yet even where there was such open acknowledgement of the need for direct intervention, no ongoing systems were in place to help the local activists provide it. Specifically, there were no staffers at the local bars to both administer the programs and intervene with lawyers in extremis.

Since that time, the ABA commission has created or helped restructure some 30 to 35 state programs, according to Blewer, an attorney at Cook, Yancey, King & Galloway in Shreveport, La. The staff people who've been hired around the country are often recovered alcoholics themselves. They get right down into the trenches, AA-style. Not long ago, for example, a judge in one rural district got drunk, abandoned his family, and went to live with his girlfriend in a trailer park. The director of the state's assistance program drove out and fetched him. But that administrator's job description also includes contacting managing partners and setting up informational visits, for example, or simply making sure that firms know the program exists. Information is power, of course, and providing it is an indispensable function of both the ABA commission and its local counterparts. It's one reason Ohio has been a groundbreaker. Former state Supreme Court judge Craig Wright points out that, since the mandatory CLE in the state includes a course on addiction, all legal practitioners are, in effect, forced to learn about how they can get help if they ever need it. By Wright's estimate, Ohio's proactive approach has enabled around two dozen judges and 600 lawyers to now lead productive lives.

The ABA has itself come a long way, as have the local groups. The commission's anniversary is a reminder that just 10 years ago very few alcoholic lawyers would have dared come out of the closet. It's a neat contrast in the culture of two eras, the great prosperity of the 1980s versus the current boom. The agonies that success breeds, no less than failure, are more aboveboard in today's milieu and that's healthier for sure, even if the rhetoric of "recovery" is often rather cloying and narcissistic. Ten years ago, I doubt that the Friends of Bill W., an Alcoholics Anonymous-type group, would have had their morning meetings plainly listed in the conference catalogue for this year's annual confab of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. "I didn't know who the hell these people were that were all getting up so early every day," admits one senior ATLA staff administrator. It's significant he didn't. It suggests that the lawyers themselves, not the institution, had taken the initiative (although a former ATLA president was a recovering alcoholic and no doubt helped lay the groundwork). The ABA Commission is likewise grass roots in origin, but here the official involvement of the institution was also especially important. Unlike ATLA, the ABA is directly representative of corporate America and large law firms. It's a more demure if not uptight culture than plaintiff's bar with its many galvanic and publicly demonstrative individualists. For the ABA's mainstream membership, formal recognition that alcoholism is a widespread problem was thus a watershed moment. "The ABA made it respectable to come forward," says Ted Cohen, an attorney in Los Angeles who's worked on California's lawyer assistance programs. The proof of the proverbial pudding is that there are now over a dozen Friends of Bill W meetings at both the ABA's mid-year and annual meetings.

There are lessons to learn from this success as well as more work that still needs to be done. Blewer naturally wants to expand further by helping state bars like Kansas and Arkansas that still don't have a lot to offer. He also wants to increase the evaluation of local programs provided by the commission. Its "base" is meanwhile continuing to broaden. Not just alcohol and drugs, gambling is seen as a related addiction. The commission can also provide referrals for pathologies beyond its scope. The larger law firms have much to contribute to this agenda and a lot to gain for themselves in the process. One or two representatives from this sector of the profession did help set up the ABA Commission (there are none sitting on it now), but it's at the local level that Blewer would like them to get more active. These big firms know how state bar strings get pulled, and they know where the money flows. They could help ensure that assistance programs maintain the administrative wherewithal to save lives.

Yet money is a two-edged sword and sometimes a mixed blessing in the quirky culture of recovery. Enough money is, of course, needed to support the outreach infrastructures. On the other hand, Cohen, for one, is critical of how California allocated $350,000 for "The Other Bar" assistance program. He says it created an overstaffed mini-bureaucracy. Now that the California State Legislature has altogether savaged the state bar, and has withdrawn funds for just about everything, the point is moot in any case. The state's lawyer assistance program must now tap private sources or perish. California's larger law firms are certainly in a position to support that effort. Actually, of all the offices of the state bar, a recovery program may at this point in history be the easiest thing to salvage if the right lawyers get on the stick. The direct benefits should inspire an especially concerned commitment, financial and otherwise, while the consequences of returning to the bad-old-days of inaction and denial are particularly awful to contemplate in a large state like California (that, demographically, has also long had relatively high alcoholism rates as well as drug addiction). It might even be a better program as a result if Cohen's worries about bureaucracy are at all well founded. Recovery intervention at the state bar level, even with the kind of administrative staffing supported by the ABA, cannot be structured like typical corporate employee assistance programs. AA, for example, doesn't raise money at all. The people who benefit from it pay for it. Craig Wright cites one well-known case in Ohio where the addicted lawyer had become a walking malpractice case with any number of possible criminal liabilities thrown in for good measure. After he sobered up, he required careful monitoring every 10 days or so for months. It was an expensive proposition, but the Ohio State Bar did not pick up the tab. The lawyer did, and that was part of his cure.

Except in critical situations like California-where new funding sources are needed right now-money is a relatively small part of what the larger law firms ought to be doing at the local level. Disseminating information within their own ranks would certainly be an exercise in enlightened self-interest. America's leading law firms are probably the last bastions for drunken lawyers terrified to acknowledge that they have problems. It's easy to get lost in the library, nursing hangovers and grinding out billables until the inevitable day of reckoning arrives. The issue for all law firms obviously involves the quality of service they provide to clients. It's no accident, for example, that Oregon's lawyer assistance program gets mentioned as one of the nation's best. In Oregon, all licensed attorneys must pay into a professional liability fund that insures against malpractice claims. Every screw-up by an alcoholic practitioner is therefore money out of everybody's pocket, so the impulse to help addicted colleagues isn't purely altruistic. The assistance program does, in fact, pay for itself, says Donald Muccigrosso, the lawyer in Portland who set it up. If nothing else, it's a matter of simply keeping dangerous lawyers off the streets. The disciplinary process can take three years and even then it's hard to prohibit the most blatant addicts from practicing in some states. In Ohio, quips Wright, "you just about have to sell babies to get disbarred."

A profession worried about its public image obviously can't afford the enforcement holes that addicted lawyers are slipping through all the time. By contrast, Blewer talks about how many of the attorneys who've contacted their local assistance groups opt for voluntary sabbaticals. Sometimes they don't return to private practice at all, and sometimes that's best for everyone. Follow-through and monitoring are essential to make sure sober lawyers stay that way. Ohio's approach is rigorous, says Wright, even if the "d" word doesn't often get spoken there. Wright can make lawyers in his charge-or "pigeons," as he quaintly calls them-take physical tests if he smells liquor on their breath, and then re-institute disciplinary procedures if they refuse or fail the procedure. Florida is particularly tough. Every year the bar spends around $20,000 urine-testing 200 or so recovering lawyers. They'd face immediate disciplinary action for testing positive. It's a regimen that Cohen thinks would have been a better way to spend more of that $350,000 in California. He says recovered lawyers in his state now mainly need to submit regular written reports, a process that Cohen depicts as too "pro forma."

Dr. Garrett O'Connor, who used to evaluate lawyers in California as a part of "The Other Bar" program, describes the more comprehensive approach established by the airline industry in 1976. It's a total-commitment process worth considering as a next step for the legal profession. O'Connor, who was closely involved in the airline industry effort, says that too many alcoholic pilots were falling by the wayside. An elaborate medical certification system was set up under the aegis of the Pilots' Association and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that involved both the treatment and monitoring of impaired pilots on a continuing basis. O'Connor says that close to 2,500 careers have been saved over the years. But certification would seem to be a much tougher chore for the legal profession. First, there's a fundamental clash of opinion among the lawyers who've spearheaded the various local initiatives. As Muccigrosso points out, many recovered alcoholics strongly favor the Alcoholics Anonymous approach, which was the one that helped them to survive. It is, of course, anonymous. You don't report nobody to anybody. At the same time, lawyers like Muccigrosso can also cite the extraordinarily beneficial results of maintaining a strong hand as well as a watchful eye. Another problem is that the legal profession cannot be patrolled as carefully as the airline industry, which is obviously more heavily regulated. There's no one who can fire a solo practitioner for being drunk, for example, and no disciplinary action can be taken absent a complaint. Nor are law firms or law departments obliged to take the same immediate action as an airline when one of its pilots gets tipsy en route to the landing strip. As Blewer points out, lawyers most often approach the assistance programs themselves. They already want to be monitored because they're probably on thin ice at work. Regular evaluations can restore them to the good graces of their managing partners or general counsel. Like most people, members of the legal profession don't usually go looking for help until they get in trouble, but trouble may come sooner or later or never.

Not that the assistance groups aren't proactive. In Louisiana, says Blewer, when the bar gets a complaint about some lawyer or judge being drunk, people from the local program call up their contacts and can ascertain within just a couple of days whether or not it's true. If it is true, they may approach the individual or the family. If they're then told to take a hike, there's no recourse except to wait for the wheels of legal malpractice to start grinding. Unrealistic expectations are dangerous in any event. "Recovery" has indeed always been more art than science. The ABA has done its job because it's set up an institutional framework that maximizes the possibility of success.

It's tempting to ask as we review these current efforts to salvage impaired lawyers if, perhaps, the members of this profession face unique personal and/or work-related pressures that distinguish them from others. They present a mix of workaholic obsession and strident egoism that's hardly unique, but there's also a measure of self-laceration that does seem strange indeed. Lawyers tell lawyer jokes, for example. Doctors don't tell doctor jokes, ever. Does such abnegation imply some alloy in the legal metal that differentiates drunken lawyers from drunken doctors? Neither the lawyers interviewed nor "addictionologists" like Garrett O'Connor particularly think so, although I'm not sure there isn't something to gain by looking harder.

If not a separate lawyer profile, a separate "caretaker" profile described by Dr. Burns Brady of Louisville, KY resonates, and rather hauntingly, for lawyers who struggle with addictive impairments. Professionals in caretaker roles - including doctors and lawyers but not, says Burns, pharmacists or architects - were often raised in families plagued by addiction. Among the roles these families assign their children are the "hero," the "mascot," the "scapegoat." The hero is a particularly burdensome role that adults can reenact in later life by, say, winning a great courtroom victory or saving someone's life during surgery. It's a rather telling paradigm in the current legal market that the attorney's job has been redefined with such a sharper focus on the idea of client service. How powerful the clients! Serve them faithfully! Lawyers present a mix of workaholic obsession and strident egoism that's hardly unique, but there's also a measure of self-laceration that does seem strange indeed. No matter how successful the professional service, however, the burden of the hero remains and will exacerbate substance dependency. Exacerbates, emphasizes Brady; it doesn't necessarily cause the problem. The crucially humane addition to the treatment regimen is an emphasis on what Brady calls "genetic garbage." No matter how psychically ensnared, most drunks wouldn't be drunks without some strong physiological propensity. If it isn't used as an excuse to stay sick, that genetic culprit is a welcome relief to blaming the soul alone. While Burns doesn't specifically discuss the impact of the child's "scapegoat" role on the development of adult professionals, O'Connor concedes that media hype about lawyers, and the dreadful image that still beleaguers the profession in some circles, could at least fuel the self-destructive fires. O'Connor, though, sees no evidence that professionals in "caretaker" roles have any greater incidence of coming from dysfunctional or substance-dependent families. Yet, it does seem likely that lawyers are distinguished from most other professionals in that they're wrestling with the dual burdens of being heroes and scapegoats. I guess that makes them Christ figures, but don't quote me.

12th National Workshop for Lawyer Assistance Programs

The 1999 National Workshop for Lawyer Assistance Programs will be held at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington. The plan is to continue with the shorter, more efficient program used in Montreal, which was designed to appeal to the volunteer lawyers who do so much of the hands-on work with the troubled lawyers. This program is CoLAP's way of both helping the volunteers with needed, key information as well as honoring them for all of the time and talent they contribute every day to make the lawyer assistance movement what it has become at the state level. While continuing to strengthen its expertise in alcohol and drug issues, CoLAP is again giving time to additional areas of impairment such as gambling and sexual additions and other impairments.

A block of rooms has been reserved at Skamania Lodge. The rates are: $140 single or double for a Forest Guestroom or River Guestroom. A few Fireplace Guestrooms are available for $171 single or double occupancy. The Parlor Suite rate is $207 single or double. The number to call for reservations is 1-800-221-7117. These rates also apply to the ILAA Annual Meeting, which immediately follows the National Workshop.

The program is tentatively scheduled to begin with a Newcomer's Session on Wednesday, September 29 at 10:00 a.m. The actual Workshop will begin at 1:00 p.m. on that date. We conclude early afternoon on Friday, October 1, 1999. Once again, for those who arrive early, we will have a hospitality suite on Tuesday evening, September 28th. You will also be able to register for the Workshop at this time. Workshop Registration forms will be available after the first of the year.

Updated: 10/3/2006

Back to Top

Copyright American Bar Association. http://www.abanet.org