Vol. 71, No.
5, May 1998
WisLAP Combats Career Killers
By Dianne Molvig
As a sole practitioner, Ted loves working independently. Lately,
however, the worries have been outstripping the rewards. Every waking moment
seems consumed with work and trying to build his practice. But the money
isn't flowing, and Ted's fallen behind in paying his bills. Desperate,
he dipped into a client's trust account to meet the mortgage payment on
his house this month. He knows he's playing with fire, but what else can
he do? He can't face losing his family's home. Lying awake at night, depressed
and hopeless, Ted wonders, how did it all come to this?
Denise felt on top of the world the day she landed a plum job at
a big law firm. But now, five years later, her life is in the pits. She
feels all she does is work, the office politics are driving her crazy,
and her marriage is teetering on divorce. Disappointment, frustration,
and hurt have become daily fare, to which she's added just "a couple
of drinks" after work to help her "cope," so she tells herself.
Lately it's been more than a couple. She's begun showing up late at work
and forgetting client appointments.
ed and Denise are fictitious. But all lawyers,
if they're totally honest with themselves, might recognize at least one
element in the above stories that rings true for them personally. Financial
pressures, self-doubts, worries, and frustrations can cloud any lawyer's
life now and then. Any lawyer probably would have to admit to wondering
at least once in his or her career: What would I do if I felt pushed to
the edge?
The Wisconsin Lawyers' Assistance Program
(WisLAP) proposes an answer: Reach out for a hand to help you back.
"One problem lawyers have is we get isolated and tend to think we're
the only ones with a problem," points out Jim Collis, a Milwaukee attorney
and cochair of the State Bar's WisLAP Committee. "Often lawyers feel
they have no support. Their worst fears come to fruition, and it's a downward
spiral from there. WisLAP is trying to prevent that. We want as many healthy
lawyers as we can get."
Preventive medicine
WisLAP is a member service of the State Bar that provides information
and help to lawyers, judges, law students, and their families. Problem areas
WisLAP deals with include drug abuse, alcoholism,
WisLAP's trained volunteers help their colleagues deal with the stresses
of lawyering, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling addiction, job loss, procrastination,
fatigue anything that can potentially destroy a lawyer's career and
personal life while maintaining strict confidentiality. |
gambling addictions, job dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression, stress, job
loss, burnout, procrastination, career fatigue anything that can potentially
destroy a lawyer's career and personal life. The program consists of a committee
of attorneys who oversee the program; two helping professionals who are
available by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and a brigade of volunteers
all around the state who can be called upon to help a fellow attorney one-on-one.
Larry Hanson is a Madison attorney on the WisLAP Committee who, like
all committee members, also serves as a volunteer. He's a recovering alcoholic.
"One aspect of the alcoholic I've seen over the years is an absolute
determination that I can do this alone; I shouldn't need help," Hanson
says. "There's this attitude that says, 'I have to fight this battle
alone, and if I can't do it, there's some shame in it.' That's one reason
I'm involved to let people know that's a crock."
Alcoholic lawyers aren't the only ones who get caught in that go-it-alone
mindset, points out John Wylie, a Clintonville lawyer and immediate past-chair
of the WisLAP Committee who's volunteered on the stress and mental health
side of the program for years. "Lawyers are so busy performing
for their clients, their partners, their associates. They're trying to impress
everybody," Wylie notes. "So part of our very public persona is
a denial that anything is bothering us. We don't allow ourselves to be human.
We have to be perfect."
"The trouble is," Wylie adds, "that's a lie. None of us
is perfect. We're all just struggling human beings trying to do the best
we can. When you lose sight of that, that's when you get into really deep
mud. You get stuck in the lie, and you're going to be found out. When you're
found out, the embarrassment and shame are horrible."
WisLAP Committee members and program staff would like lawyers to seek
help long before things get to that point. "Our focus is on prevention
before someone gets in too deep," notes Shell Goar, who administrates
the WisLAP program and staffs the stress and mental health hotline.
"We do our best to let lawyers know they don't have to lose their
licenses, their careers, their families, their lives to a disease that is
highly treatable," adds Lea Landmann, WisLAP's chemical dependency
program coordinator.
Confidentiality is key
Still, WisLAP Committee members and staff know they're up against a few
hurdles in reaching lawyers who could benefit from the program. One major
hurdle is concern about confidentiality often the first question people
bring up when calling the hotline. Lawyers worry: Who's going to find out?
Am I setting myself up for a visit from the Board of Attorneys Professional
Responsibility (BAPR)?
Critical to assuring confidentiality is the fact that WisLAP is exempt
from Supreme Court Rule 20:8.3(a) requiring attorneys to report another
attorney's professional misconduct. The exemption, found in SCR 20:8.3(c),
applies to anyone involved in WisLAP: staff, committee members, and volunteers.
WisLAP also builds confidentiality protection into the way it conducts
business. No one keeps case records, other than generic statistics for program
evaluation purposes. And there's no caller ID on any of WisLAP's telephone
lines. "We specifically discussed that issue in our committee,"
recalls Tom Casper, a Beloit attorney and WisLAP Committee member. "On
the one hand, there was this notion that if we had caller ID, then if someone
called and didn't leave a number, or was too incoherent to be understood,
we could call back. But we decided it wasn't worth the risk" of making
people feel uncomfortable about calling.
Of all obstacles to contacting WisLAP, committee members recognize that
probably the biggest is the fear of BAPR involvement. William Read, a Madison
attorney and WisLAP Committee member understands that fear. A recovering
alcoholic himself, he says, "There's this paranoia, this feeling that
you can't trust anyone. After my being around this committee for a bunch
of years, I can say with a straight face that you can trust the committee.
You can trust the contacts here. Contact with WisLAP is not a straight shot
to the disciplinary arm of BAPR. In fact, it can be a safety net from the
disciplinary arm of BAPR, and I can say that with an equally straight face."
"Thanks to Jerry Sternberg (BAPR administrator)," Read adds,
"I'm aware how very real the separation of BAPR and this committee
is. And yet how humanely the two seem to be able to weave together whenever
BAPR's involvement is a fait accompli because the problem started there."
First contact
Anyone seeking assistance from WisLAP can call one of two toll-free hotlines
((800) 543-2625 for stress and mental health issues; (800) 254-9154 for
alcohol and drug problems) to reach Shell Goar or Lea Landmann. The two
of them fulfill multiple roles; each is a neutral ear for venting problems,
a referral source to professionals out in the communities, and an intermediary
linking lawyers seeking help with trained volunteer lawyers willing to provide
it.
The volunteer assigned to a particular attorney may live in the same community
or some distance away. The former arrangement offers the advantage of having
someone nearby to turn to for support. But sometimes lawyers prefer, for
privacy reasons, to work with a distant attorney.
Either way, Goar and Landmann honor the lawyer's preference in recruiting
a volunteer. From there, the volunteer initiates contact. The connection
between the two lawyers can assume various forms, such as a phone call,
a meeting over lunch, a one-shot conversation or an ongoing interaction
over time.
Peer assistance is a vital element of the program. "I don't think
there's anybody who can talk to a lawyer better than another lawyer,"
points out Michael Hausman, a Waukesha attorney and cochair of the WisLAP
Committee. "We've all been there, every one of us, in one shape or
form. A fellow lawyer can truly understand the pressures you're dealing
with."
Lawyers seeking help aren't the only ones encouraged to contact WisLAP.
Family members, friends, fellow lawyers, and judges can phone out of concern
for an attorney. "We've especially been trying to get judges to pick
up the phone to call WisLAP," notes cochair Collis. "Many of them
see problems first."
Concerned parties who make the call may wish to remain anonymous or become
involved. Sometimes it's useful for the troubled lawyer to know who called.
"When a judge calls with a concern," Goar points out, "they
sometimes want the lawyer to know, because they may have some clout"
in moving the lawyer to face up to his or her problems.
Still, lawyers often are reluctant to call about other lawyers. "They
feel they'd be interfering or ratting on someone," explains Landmann.
"But the worst thing you can do is look the other way. Because then,
in my opinion, you're really contributing to that person's illness or problem."
And sometimes, Goar and Landmann readily acknowledge, it doesn't work
to try to help lawyers others are concerned about. "They'll tell us
it's none of our bloody business," Landmann says. "But sometimes
it's still not lost. Because a few months or years down the line, in cases
involving alcoholism, the disease will have progressed. Many lawyers remember.
They themselves will get their backs up against the wall in too many places,
and then they ask for help."
A wider reach
In the spirit of frankness that pervades the WisLAP program, those involved
admit that there have been rough spots in its history. WisLAP is the result
of a merger of two former entities, the Committee on Assistance to Lawyers
(COAL) and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (LCL). COAL focused on stress and
mental health issues and was a State Bar committee; LCL addressed alcoholism
and drug abuse and functioned outside the Bar.
Expressing the concerns many had when the two merged, Madison attorney
Mary Alice Coan says, "I didn't have high hopes." Coan is a WisLAP
Committee member and former LCL board member. "I was afraid that somehow
LCL would become a second-class citizen because stress is sort of glamorous.
If you're stressed out you're important and busy. But if you use substances,
you're just a drunk."
"But it hasn't turned out that way," Coan adds. "The merger
has been remarkable. The whole is much bigger than the parts we started
with."
Proof of that is evident as WisLAP now pursues new directions. The committee
is setting up a subcommittee in each of the 16 Board of Governors' districts
to extend WisLAP's reach to more attorneys. Subcommittees will include lawyers,
health-care professionals, counselors, and others who are willing to help
lawyers in distress. The hope is that the district subcommittees will stir
more volunteer help in parts of the state where that's now scarce, to give
Goar and Landmann more of the backup support they need. Also, people in
the districts will assist in educational efforts, such as speaking to local
bar associations about WisLAP.
"It was Jerry Sternberg's idea," John Wylie says of the district
subcommittee plan, "and I think it's a great one. Perhaps this is a
way to avoid some of the disciplinary problems."
"I'd like to see the self-regulatory program of our state (BAPR)
be preventive," Sternberg says, "rather than simply coming down
on people at the point of discipline. I'd like to see WisLAP become so comprehensive
that people in any area of the state could have access to a volunteer fairly
close to where they're located. Then we'll be able to meet people more than
half way. I think this is the beginning of making a difference in our profession."
Dianne Molvig operates Access Information Service, a Madison research,
writing and editing service. She is a frequent contributor to area publications.
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