- Quickdraw McLaw
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Hey! What are you doing here? Don’t you know it’s a holiday? Go ahead and shut your computer off and forget about work for a few days. Trust us, it will be there when you get back!
Seriously though, we hope that each of you have something fun planned this holiday weekend with family and friends. Take a minute and soak it in. If any of you are not feeling so jolly or struggling right now, please don’t hesitate to ask for help. 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.
Confidential help from a fellow lawyer is a phone call awayToll Free: 866-828-0022Any 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 at the link above.
Call 1-800-273-8255
Available 24 hours everyday
I have heard some really, really good things about Lawyers Concerned For Lawyers, and I have never heard of any breach of confidentiality, so I assume it never occurred–at least not anything that was harmful or of consequence.
However, I understand the program is administered (at least to some extent) by or through the State Bar (or operates, at least to some extent, under the auspices of the State Bar) so that raises some possible concerns in my mind.
For starters, we all have the obligation to report misconduct. Admittedly, most of us interpret that as us becoming aware of something clearly unethical and potentially quite damaging to clients or the administration of justice.
So, agreed that there is probably no real risk of someone, who is assisting someone through this program, reporting someone (who they are advising or assisting) to State Bar Discipline based on a chemical dependency in general adversely affecting the practice of the attorney they are advising and assisting.
It is assumed such addiction is in fact adversely affecting their practice (as well as personal life) or they would not have reached out for help.
But what if the mentor learns of something very directly damaging and specific? Let's say they learn that the attorney they are advising and assisting is involved in a major trial, all the while using prohibited substances?
Is that not something that should be reported due to the serious adverse effect is has on specific clients, as well as interfering with the administration of justice?
So, I am kind of torn on all this as I am aware of great work the program has provided, but to avoid these kinds of issues is it not better, and safer, if individuals seek outside counseling and assistance, rather than such assistance being under the auspices of the agency that controls their professional license and livlihood (and wherein certain reporting requirements may be at issue)?
But to what extent is it really under the auspices of the State Bar?
And even if it is, if there is a policy that the mentor not reveal (to the State Bar or anyone else) anything they learn while assisting the person, that should handle it.
At least that's the way it seems to me.
Do not trust LCL. Call a counselor or the national suicide hotline. We have pure evil in our profession. The evil people are the ones who need help, not you. I pray for the evil.
12:49, although raising some legitimate questions about the service, is in general too trusting and too praise-worthy of LCL. And 2:56 is even more positive about LCL and seems to dismiss the legitimate ethical and confidentiality issues raised by 12:49.
And, on the reverse end of the spectrum, 9:45 is far too suspicious, and assumes that LCL exists to help the State Bar trap lawyers.
I believe that LCL has its heart in the right place and has helped many, but there is something to what both 12:49 and 9:45 indicate abut perhaps it is better to seek outside help.
And interesting that both 12:49 and 9:45 have dramatically differing opinions about LCL, but both reach the same conclusion–play it safe and seek outside help and counseling.
LCL can promise all the confidentiality that they want to promise, but they can't address the bottom line 12:49 lays out–since LCL is under the auspices of the State Bar, and since attorneys have an obligation to report clear and serious ethical violations, it is assumed the mentor has a duty to report if an attorney being mentored is screwing up a major trial due to chemical dependency
9:49 here. You can find me suspicious. That is your choice. I know from a colleague, get help away from LCL . You want to deal with Kristine Kuzemka. Go for it. LCL is not to be trusted.
10:14–I did suggest you might be a little too suspicious, but I also suggested that you(as well as 9:49) raise valid points about perhaps seeking help from the outside.
And no thanks, I don't wish to deal with…well, never mind.
In response to the confidentiality concerns discussed above, SCR 106.5(3) states plainly: "All information obtained by the Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers program, including the initial report and any subsequent information provided to the program thereafter, shall be confidential and shall not be admissible in any state bar disciplinary, admission, administrative or other state bar proceeding." Not just confidential, inadmissible.
So it says, but we have the rogue Nevada Supreme Court who ignore facts and law daily. LCL, no thanks.
Please point to one disciplinary matter where a rogue NSC considered inadmissible information from LCL when disciplining somebody.
Jacob
1:35, do you trust Jim Hardesty and Elissa Cadish with your career? Um, no.
Inadmissible at a discipline proceeding, does not necessarily eliminate the possibility that confidentiality can be breached, and that such could lead to a Bar Complaint if matters are serious enough.
So, it might be a little myopic(or at least a little over-simplified) to quote that rule as some sort of guarantee to avoid this dynamic. If an impaired lawyer is lulled into a sense of security, and starts divulging important matters, there are ways that is used against the lawyer, even if direct communications to the mentor are confidential and inadmissible.
And there is nothing preventing the mentor from being compelled to testify at a malpractice trial against the attorney. The prohibition only extends to Bar Discipline
1:35 here. Now this is a thoughtful comment. That's why you don't divulge specifics about potential malpractice. Just get the help you need without telling LCL that you blew 4 different deadlines. Or sure, just get outside help. The point remains from the original post from our bloglord, we all struggle sometimes and you should just get help if you need it. There are plenty of options. LCL is one.
Hey, News 3 and Nevada Equal Rights Commission, my family appreciates you protecting and promoting the sexual harasdment and sexual assaults of multiple women at Top Golf. Promote a place that allows women to be raped at work by kitchen staff. Wtf???
Um, what?
Top Golf has been in the paper. I get the post.
Harassment
Although Thankfully I have never had a loved one commit suicide, I did walk past an apartment where the Police were talking with a family member about a suicide that happened in the apartment. I will never, ever forget what the person looked like – her face was twisted like that scene in Platoon where the grizzled Veteran looked dead. It must be horrible. That being said, I hope if anyone needs help they get it. But I personally (I don't want to be morally responsible for giving others advice) would use the Bar service as a last resort because I KNOW, having witnessed with my own eyes, the treachery and evilness that at least two OBC Members have taken and NOTHING would surprise me about the depths they would go to persecute those that are "enemies" of their BigLaw puppet masters. And before you unleash the hate on me, no, it wasn't me – I did get a letter of caution once but that was it.