Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP)

How Can We Help?

Lawyers are human and we experience human emotional problems. These problems can affect our work, leading to difficulties in professional performance and, sometimes, to ethical lapses. Many colleagues and employees bring their problems to work because no one can completely separate his or her private life from work. Sometimes our personal problems are so overwhelming that they dominate our life and work.

The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP) provides confidential, meaningful assistance to lawyers, judges, law students and their families in coping with alcoholism and other addictions, depression, acute and chronic anxiety and other problems related to the stress of practicing law.

Call (800) 543-2625 or (608) 250-6172 for more information.

WisLAP is a member service of the State Bar of Wisconsin. It was created by the Board of Governors in January 1996 by merging the services of the Committee of Assistance for Lawyers (COAL) and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Wisconsin (LCL). WisLAP maintains a professionally staffed telephone helpline and a support network of trained volunteers.

WisLAP treats each request for help with the same confidentiality as a lawyer-client relationship. WisLAP is exempt from reporting professional misconduct to the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) under Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule 20:8.3(c)(2). WisLAP doesn't require callers to disclose their identity and does not keep any case records.

Our staff and volunteers help the Bar and its members by:

• Providing advice on coping with mental health and addiction problems.
• Putting you in touch with one of our extensive network of trained volunteer lawyers, even on nights and weekends, when you need to talk to someone who has faced problems like yours.
• Helping you find professional resources and treatment programs in your area or around the country.
• Presenting educational programs on mental health and addiction problems to local bar associations, law firms, judges and law students.
• Providing information on both traditional and non-traditional recovery programs.
• Helping to arrange for interventions in cases where a lawyer's problem is so overwhelming that it is interfering with his or her practice and personal life.

WisLAP Educational Programs: To schedule a program for your group or receive more information on WisLAP contact Linda Albert at (608) 250-6172, (800) 543-2625 or FAX (608) 257-5502, at the State Bar of Wisconsin.