Letters to the Editor

Re: When a lawyer becomes mentally impaired

I read with great interest Peter Geraghty's "Eye on Ethics" article regarding Attorney Impairment.

I wanted to let you know that the Lawyer Assistance world has been using the ethics opinions you discuss as a way to educate lawyers about lawyer assistance programs and their duties to clients when a colleague is impaired. As you know, a partner's substance abuse or mental illness can tear apart the fabric of a firm, as the other lawyers and staff struggle over how to both protect the clients while at the same time maintain a relationship with a long time and valued colleague. But lawyers are not trained to recognize impaired behavior or facilitate referrals.

The Maine Lawyer Assistance Program has tried to remedy this problem by providing attorneys with one of their mandatory CLE credit hours for free at a time and place convenient to the firm members. Not only have many firms welcomed the Maine Assistance Program to speak, but the attendance has been outstanding, regularly more than half of firm members attend and participate. You may be thinking that Maine lawyers are strange to show up for an hour discussion of substance abuse, but the carrot is that we have packaged a PowerPoint presentation about attorney impairment in a way that it qualifies for the ever elusive mandatory "ethics" hour. The presentation is based on the same ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct's requirements which you discuss in your article and that has been approved by Maine for one hour of the mandatory CLE ethics credit. In addition to presenting to Maine firms and bar associations, we presented the program in November at the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs annual meeting and as a result, we did the program for the Utah Bar Association as well.

A copy of the PowerPoint is attached. For further information about our services, please contact me (Louise Thomas) at 207/791-1341 or lthomas@pierceatwood.com.

Louise K. Thomas
Pierce Atwood LLP
One Monument Square
Portland, ME 04101

Certainly, recognizing and responding to a colleague's impairment is a top priority in a law firm, but when the attorney works solo, there's no one to recognize early on that problems are brewing.

My first job out of law school was to take over the practice of a dear friend who died prematurely (and who had said the 'magic words' to get me to enroll in law school). My friend's estate hired an attorney friend of mine as the attorney of record. Another attorney who had worked with my friend also agreed to assist. The reality was that those attorneys were not present on a daily basis and relied on my ability to handle the day-to-day business of the office.

Since law was now my second career, my maturity (in years and judgment) enabled me to manage it. But the depression I endured, as I endeavored to live up to my fiduciary duties with the highest degree of integrity I could conjure up, eventually drove me from the practice.

My point is this: mental, emotional and physical impairment may be easier to detect in the larger law firm setting than in the solo practice arena. How do you address this? I don't know. But one suggestion is to make considerable effort in law schools to familiarize students with the realities of law practice, particularly as solos. I heard virtually no discussion about solo practice in my law school. If it wasn't discussed there, then I'm sure it's not discussed in the law schools that cater particularly to the huge law "factories."

As an increasing number of graduates seek employment on their own for whatever reason, it becomes more pressing to reach out to solo practitioners. Make no mistake about it: like the small businessmen and women who are the backbone of any local economy, solo practitioners are the backbone of local citizens' access to justice. Solos will take the "low value" cases that larger law firms won't touch. Solos need and deserve a sustained effort to reach them, something more than any given bar president's well-intentioned effort, during his/her term, to make a difference. This needs to be a priority among bar leaders of this country.

Name Withheld

Back to top