Proposed WisLAP monitoring could save lawyers' professional and personal lives

An innovative referral and monitoring program to reach lawyers coping with alcoholism, depression or some other barrier to health and well-being received the approval of the Board of Governors at its Dec. 5 meeting.

The State Bar and the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) are petitioning the Wisconsin Supreme Court for authority to refer troubled attorneys to the State Bar’s Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP), an assistance program for judges, lawyers, law students and their families.  WisLAP would develop and run the monitoring program as a service separate from the voluntary assistance program they already provide.

A competitive drive and other traits that make lawyers professionally successful can be the same ones that put them at greater risk for developing depression or a substance use disorder than the general population, WisLAP coordinator Linda Albert said. This tendency may be exacerbated by a professional setting in which demands are high and the intrinsic rewards are few, she added.

“It can be difficult for attorneys to ask for help because they are used to fixing other people’s problems,” Albert said. “There is not a lot of permission in the culture for an attorney or a judge to have a problem.”

The proposed monitoring system is a recognition that lawyer professional misconduct correlates with alcoholism, depression, and other mental and physical conditions. Petitioners believe that early identification and response to underlying problems will serve the public interest as well as improve the lives of legal professionals. Petitioners also believe that WisLAP has the expertise and is the logical choice to provide the monitoring function.

Currently when the OLR learns that a lawyer’s ability to practice may be adversely affected by a mental or physical condition, the OLR is not permitted to refer that individual to WisLAP for assistance.

How the monitoring program would work

Under the proposal, OLR could refer lawyers to WisLAP as an alternative to discipline for an attorney within a diversion agreement, as part of the conditions to continue practice or gain reinstatement, in response to court-ordered conditions or OLR may make a referral in response to an attorney claiming some level of impairment following an investigation or complaint. A referral from the OLR may also arise informally where suspicion or some indicator of impairment prompts the OLR to simply recommend the attorney work with WisLAP. This last scenario would be handled like any other anonymous or self-referral into the WisLAP program, but the other situations would lead to a formal referral.

Formal referrals for monitoring could come from either OLR or the Board of Bar Examiners (BBE) as BBE could potentially use the program in conjunction with its proposed procedure for conditional admissions to the bar.  Following the referral, the lawyer would meet with a trained WisLAP monitor. A monitor may be another lawyer or a licensed health care professional. Albert said that WisLAP will be training a segment of its volunteer lawyers to act as monitors. A monitor’s only role is to supervise a participating lawyer in accordance with the contract.  A monitor shall never serve in the role of a counselor, sponsor, treatment provider or representative.

The lawyer signs a contract to establish objective, measurable behaviors demonstrating compliance with a plan responsive to concerns of the referring agency and WisLAP. At the first meeting, a monitor and the WisLAP coordinator would review the obligations of the participating lawyer, which include the duty to immediately report any breach of the contract. Thereafter, a monitor meets with the attorney to gather data such as drug or alcohol test results or treatment progress to track compliance. That information is supplied to the WisLAP coordinator who maintains ongoing consultation with the monitor.

All communications between the monitored lawyer and WisLAP, as well as all records of monitoring, are to be confidential. However, the contract stipulates that limited information sufficient to demonstrate compliance or noncompliance will be reported to the referring agency, either OLR or BBE. The referring agency determines the course of action for the attorney if there is noncompliance.

In addition to this assistance program for lawyers, Albert said that WisLAP is currently developing a specific assistance program for judges. Albert said that WisLAP is stepping up its public education efforts, including speaking engagements at various lawyer and judges conferences and local bar association meetings.

About WisLAP

WisLAP is a member service of the State Bar of Wisconsin created in January 1996. Its professionally staffed telephone helpline can be contacted twenty-four hours a day at (800) 543-2625. Each request for help is treated with the same confidentiality as a lawyer-client relationship. WisLAP is exempt from reporting professional misconduct to the OLR under Wisconsin Supreme Court Rule 20:8.3(c)(2). It does not require callers to disclose their identity and does not keep any case records.

Callers can receive advice on coping with mental health and addiction problems as well as assistance with finding treatment programs locally or around the country. WisLAP provides information on both traditional and non-traditional recovery programs.

WisLAP can put callers in touch with one of its trained volunteer lawyers, even on nights and weekends, to provide someone to talk to who has faced similar problems. WisLAP can help arrange for interventions in cases where a lawyer’s problem is so overwhelming that it interferes with professional or personal activities.

By Alex De Grand, Legal Writer, State Bar of Wisconsin