Lawyer Addiction Blog

Information Supporting Recovery

This week, we’re spotlighting South Carolina’s Lawyers Helping Lawyers (LHL) program. According to its mission statement, “Lawyers Helping Lawyers provides programs and services to assist members of the legal profession in South Carolina who suffer from problems of substance abuse or depression, which affect their professional and/or personal life. Members of the Lawyers Helping Lawyers [...]

Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Pennsylvania, Inc. (LCL) is Pennsylvania’s lawyer assistance program, and founded in 1988 by a group of recovering lawyers and judges. LCL operates through a network of 200 volunteeers, who are “lawyers, judges and law students in recovery from addiction and mental health or emotional problems”. They provide discreet assistance in [...]

The Oregon Attorney Assistance Program (OAAP) is a service provided to all Oregon lawyers. Funded by the Professional Liability Fund, OAAP offers confidential support through referrals, counselling, workshops and other educational programs. OAAP assists attorneys facing issues such as: alcoholism, drug addiciton, and compulsive disorders (including gambling addiction) depression and anxiety stress management The program [...]

Started in 1985, the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Assistance Program (LHLAP) is a committee of the Oklahoma Bar Association. LHLAP aims to “assist members who are having difficulties that adversely affect their practice.” While the majority of the calls LHLAP receives are for assistance with drug and alcohol problems, the program also assists lawyers who are [...]

Lawyers Weekly recently ran an article that readers of the Lawyer Addiction Blog will be interested in. “Lawyers Starting Over” (Christopher  Guly, Oct 16/09 issue) describes the intersection of depression with law society sanctions, and outlines the huge range of emotion and behaviour that lawyers face when they are suspended or disbarred, often as a [...]

We recently came across a new book that will be of interest to readers of the Lawyer Addiction Blog. Gary Gwilliam is a California trial attorney who wrote about his experiences with alcoholism in his 2007 memoir, Getting a Winning Verdict in My Personal Life: A Trial Lawyer Finds His Soul. To read excerpts from [...]

This week, we’re focusing on OLAP, the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program. OLAP’s mission is to “provide confidential help to lawyers, judges and law students suffering from alcoholism, substance abuse or other addictions, or mental illness.” The OLAP website includes lots of useful resources, including: Self-tests for drug & alcohol abuse and depression Extensive informati0n on [...]

The Nebraska Lawyers Assistance Program (NLAP) was created in 1995 by the Nebraska State Bar Association with a view to helping “lawyers, judges and law students troubled by substance abuse problems, stress, depression and other types of disorders which may impair their ability to perform in a competent and professional manner.” NLAP’s main methods of [...]

This week’s featured lawyer assistance program is the North Dakota Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP), which was created in 2004. LAP is operated by a six-member Lawyer Assistance Committee, and its purpose is to “prevent and alleviate problems that adversely affect a lawyer’s performance.” Often these problems stem from mental health or substance abuse issues. The [...]

This week, we spotlight two separate lawyer assistance programs in North Carolina: the North Carolina Lawyer Assistance Program and BarCares. The Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP) website lists a host of services including peer counselling, extensive resource links, many articles and newsletters, as well as research papers. Addiction and depression are two frequent areas of support. [...]