- law dawg
- 21 Comments
- 3089 Views
We hope that those of you in the office today come to your senses and close up shop before the Christmas ghosts have to visit. We also hope that each of you have something fun planned this holiday season with family and friends. Take a minute and soak it in. If any of you are not feeling like this is the most wonderful time of the year or are struggling right now, please don’t hesitate to ask for help. You are not alone and there are people who care. If any of you are not struggling right now, consider reaching out to those people in your life who might be. A quick message or phone call goes a long way. We wish you all a safe and happy holiday!
988
Available 24 hours everyday
Confidential help from a fellow lawyer is a phone call away
Toll Free: 866-828-0022
Any lawyer in need of confidential assistance with alcohol, drug, gambling problems, depression and stress: help is a phone call away. The LCL hotline will put you in touch with a peer who understands the issues of lawyers today. When you call, all you have to leave is your first name and telephone number, and someone with experience and who understands will call you back. You will be listened to with understanding and support by someone who will give you resources you may not know exist out there. One new benefit of this program is three free therapist sessions for support during stressful events. More details here.
Three years ago on Christmas Day I called the LCL hotline. The conversation I had with the responder saved my life. I am forever thankful.
I’m glad you called and that you are here with us for this Christmas.
On my first day of law school, back in 1993, one of the orientation speakers commented about the epidemic of clinical depression in the legal profession. His advice is as relevant now as it was then: Never make being a lawyer the most important thing in your life; it’s just not all that important. Engage with family and friends in a positive way. Be of service to your fellow man. Be generous and charitable. Engage in pursuits which feed the spirit. And keep the profession in perspective; it’s important to be a good and ethical lawyer, but it is not the be-all-end-all of life.
LCL and Kristine Kuzemka can and do change lives. Don’t hesitate, call.
Have a safe holiday everyone!
LCL picked up the phone almost three years ago when I needed it so bad….I didn’t know where else to turn and that one call changed my life! Please do not hesitate to call, it is fully confidential and it will help!
Happy Holidays!
How do they keep it confidential?
As a lawyer (presumably), do you take your other ethical obligations seriously and follow the Nevada Supreme Court Rules? Then see SCR 106.5(4). Failure to maintain that confidentiality would be, in fact, a basis for attorney discipline itself. See SCR 101. In all my years, I have never heard of LCL violating that confidentiality and even if someone did breach a participant’s trust, that evidence is inadmissible in disciplinary proceedings unless it was otherwise out there and independently discovered by OBC.
LCL is a good group; they help and are glad to do it. If you’re in a dark place with alcohol, AA can also help. Medical rehab and treatment facilities can sometimes help too, especially for detox; but AA is free and anonymous. No one there will out you. There are AA meetings every day at all times throughout the valley. It’s a life changing program and it’s been working for nearly 90 years.
I want to give LCL another shoutout. We have seen the suspicions that it is somehow affiliated with OBC and will sell out your troubles to OBC. Not true.
I would like to believe that but with the proven deceitfulness and underhanded dealings of OBC how can one be sure enough to trust their career to your post?
You’re not going to lose your “career” if you have a drug or alcohol addiction and call LCL . You’re going to lose your law license if you have a drug or alcohol addition, start misappropriating client money to fuel your gambling addition, sleep with your clients because your marriage is falling apart, cover it up for years, lie to the State Bar about it during its investigation or fail to respond to them entirely after you start failing to respond to your clients, and then repeatedly fail to take responsibility or accept a lifeline like diversion or even a stayed suspension to get the help you needed in the first place. The amount of “exits” there is astonishing, which all started with a call to LCL but ended with “it’s your own damn fault now.” No body is losing their “career” for anything less and a pattern of dishonesty is the quickest route to disbarment.
@1:37 that’s objectively not true. OBC goes for suspension or disbarment for everything. I wouldn’t trust any Bar organization. Call AA.
@5:49 Respectfully, you’re wrong, but you’re entitled to your opinion based upon whatever anecdotal evidence or personal vendetta you have against that office. Call AA. Call LCL. Call someone. So long as you get help, that’s what matters. However, your admitted distrust towards “any Bar organization” speaks for itself. You can post whatever you want here anonymously, but I would hope others can and do reach their own opinion based upon something more than your sad reality.
I posted a more in depth post but it got deleted. Not sure why since I really didn’t see anything defamatory, but whatever.
OBC goes for suspension/disbarment on virtually every case. What they did to Sarah Hawkins is not a one off. A suspension may not destroy your career, but it will certainly leave you broke. Not being able to support your family or pay your bills will make everything worse. Lest we forget, you still have to pay someone like Rob Bare to defend you and that ain’t cheap either.
We used to have folks at OBC who looked out for the profession and sought to help people stay on/get on track. Those days are long past. We have a couple former prosecutors who go after everyone, no matter what. OBC has gotten to the point where if you win a case, opposing counsel can just file a bar complaint and the OBC does their dirty work.
Based on what I’ve seen with my own two eyes, I would never recommend anyone call a Bar organization. You can gnaw on that boot leather all you want, but I’m looking at it from a realistic perspective.
The Hawkins case was never a suspension/disbarment case, so using the two subjects in the same paragraph illustrates my point: You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and speak from personal animus. At worst, your intent is to mislead.
If you were on that Zoom hearing, you heard the same as me: OBC asked Hawkins to stop, she refused. Based upon her lack of prior discipline, that case was private discipline at best. The panel ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence that she threatened a Metro employee with contempt, which was a matter of statutory interpretation and likely negligence (not intent). Candidly, the panel got it right, but unlike you I’m not going to judge an entire office based upon their failed prosecution of one case.
If OBC files a complaint, they’re likely seeking one of three types of discipline: a public reprimand, suspension, or disbarment, which is two-thirds of what you dislike (i.e. their jobs). If I knew what area of law you practice, I’m sure I could make gross generalizations about your practice too. “PI attorneys are ambulance chasers.” “Family law attorneys profit from stoking chaos.” See, easy.
Lastly, I dare you to point to a recent case where an attorney was prosecuted for being the prevailing party. That’s absurd. Heck, file a bar complaint during active litigation and see what OBC says. They routinely deny matters because they refuse to be used as an alternative forum by opposing counsel or pro se litigants. The same presumably applies to the many public defenders and “ineffective assistance of counsel” claims that OBC must (wrongfully) receive because there’s a better remedy: file a writ. The district court is in a better position to hear that case. Attorney discipline also doesn’t get your conviction overturned.
Call me a bootlicker all you want but your bias is showing. At least I’d like to hope I maintain some semblance of objectivity without publicly discouraging people from seeking out a valuable resource like LCL. You want to see the real danger to the legal community? Look in the mirror.
I only referred to the Hawkins case because it is already public. I absolutely know of cases where OBC has prosecuted an attorney who was reported by a losing oppposing counsel.
OBC does investigate attorneys during active litigation and the investigate attorneys for things that are more properly handled by the judge.
You are clearly an employee of the Bar. The real danger to the legal community is OBC prosecuting BS complaints while the Bar ignores the fact that we’re averaging a suicide every six months.
I’m flattered but no… I come here for the entertainment but draw the line at “don’t utilize all available resources because {daily ‘the State Bar’ is evil argument}.” When you actively discourage people with addiction from seeking help, including help provided by the Bar with strict guidelines governing confidentiality, then you must wonder whether you’re on the winning side of the “who’s to blame for the mental health crisis argument.”
Rest in Peace Kerry Skaggs. He was a great lawyer and a better person and will be missed by many.
Nicest person you would ever want to meet.