Wisconsin
Lawyer
Vol. 80, No. 1 January 2007
Overwhelmed? Call WisLAP
The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program provides confidential assistance
to lawyers, judges, law students and their families in coping with alcoholism
and other addictions, depression, anxiety, and stress.
by Steven Levine
Stress and lawyers.
Alcohol, drug addiction, and lawyers. Depression and lawyers. An Internet search using these terms makes clear: It can be tough to
be a lawyer. The problems that may begin in law school can damage the lawyer and his or her clients, resulting in Office of
Lawyer Regulation (OLR) investigation, charges of professional misconduct, and suspension or revocation. So, if you're at the end of your
rope and you don't know where to turn, call WisLAP - the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program.
Operating since 1996, the WisLAP is administered by two State Bar staffers who are real angels: 20-year veteran and
WisLAP Coordinator Shell Goar and Program Assistant Sarah Coyle. Direct administrative questions to them at (608) 250-6172 or (608)
250-6124. Check out WisLAP, then call the Helpline at (800) 543-2625 if you
need help. Shell can provide advice on coping with mental health and addiction problems, refer you to professional treatment and
recovery programs, or put you in touch with a trained volunteer lawyer who has faced the same problems you are experiencing.
WisLAP treats each request for help with the same confidentiality as a lawyer-client relationship. WisLAP is exempt
from reporting professional misconduct to the OLR, and WisLAP doesn't require callers to disclose their identity and does not keep
any case records.
WisLAP helps lawyers cope with depression and other mental health problems, alcohol and other drug abuse, gambling
and shopping addictions, and eating disorders - anything that troubles lawyers. In recent years about half of the problems brought
to WisLAP involve stress, and 90 percent of the callers are solo practitioners. You may benefit from reading the publication
"Surviving Career Killers: Burnout, Stress and Depression," available from WisLAP. The American Bar Association's October/November
2006 issue of GP Solo, entitled "Bumps in the Road III," also contains helpful articles. If you're a judge, the American Judicature
Society's July-August 2006 issue of Judicature, entitled "Providing Help for Judges in Distress," is must reading.
While most of the problems brought to WisLAP involve stress or addiction, WisLAP will help any lawyer with most any
problem. Last year WisLAP helped close down a solo practice in southern Wisconsin when a degenerative neurological condition made
it impossible for the lawyer to continue. The process began when a lawyer friend noticed that something was seriously wrong and
advised the attorney's wife to contact Shell Goar. "After talking with Shell, I felt I was not alone," says "Jane," the attorney's wife.
(The people involved granted permission to relay this story for educational purposes.) "I was especially impressed by the way Shell
educated herself about the disease and with how she listened." Shell then turned to Racine lawyer Ed Antaramian, who was appointed
trustee and who assembled a team that spent untold hours closing files until the job was done. In addition, State Bar Ethics Counsel
Tim Pierce, the OLR, and the local district attorney's office provided valuable assistance.
"I hope no one has to go through what we did," Jane says, "but if they do, they should know that there's someone they can
turn to."
Actually, there are lots of people to turn to. Last October I attended a packed all-day training session for WisLAP volunteers
- lawyers who undergo mandatory training to serve as WisLAP peer-support counselors and to participate in formal
interventions. (Interventions are group meetings in which friends, family, and colleagues confront an impaired lawyer in an effort to overcome
denial and persuade the lawyer to seek treatment.) Becoming a volunteer involves a serious commitment of time and of the heart. Often
a volunteer is a lawyer who has been saved by WisLAP and wants to return the favor in a most personal way.
I wish to persuade every lawyer who needs help to contact WisLAP before it is too late. If you or someone you know needs help
- WisLAP is there. Pick up the phone.
Wisconsin Lawyer