REGULARS

Psychologist Richard Carlton, who staffs the personal assistance program, says the practice of law tends to attract people who are driven to succeed and for whom control is important. “But sometimes you run into a situation where you lose that complete control,” he said.

Most of those who call the toll-free line are between 35 and 50 years old, practice alone and are in the throes of a mid-career crisis. Usually the call is triggered by a dramatic episode in the attorney’s personal life or practice that intensifies his stress or depression.

Carlton recently talked for 90 minutes to a woman attorney who called at 12:30 a.m. suffering from insomnia; she was having problems with her partner. Another caller had a friend who couldn’t admit to his dementia. A wife whose husband had missed a filing deadline and was suicidal called; her husband eventually went to a psychiatric facility. A lawyer who was losing his practice faced bankruptcy.

“Quite often financial stresses are a big part of the equation,” says Carlton. “These are people who are struggling to make their practice work.”

Although attorneys who practice in large firms also feel intense pressure to generate business and produce heavy billable hours, they usually do not struggle with the same kind of financial pressure a sole practitioner faces. “A sole practitioner has to be in charge of marketing, human resour-ces, business development and information technology at the same time he has to be an attorney,” Carlton says.

He points to advances in technology and a lack of respect as two key changes in the legal profession which have made practice far more stressful than it was only 20 years ago.

When there was a greater respect for the law and practitioners were often pillars of the community, lawyers received emotional support and appreciation for their work. Now, says Carlton, they don’t get strokes, esteem or respect; they get lawyer jokes and complaints about their bill.

In addition, technological advances such as fax machines, e-mail and cell phones have quickened the pace and heightened the expectations surrounding representation. Carlton said he routinely hears about lawyers who return to work after a few days off and find 400 e-mails clogging their computers, many of which are deemed urgent.

“The tremendous volume of information they are bombarded with that they are expected to process is way beyond the capacity of any normal brain, particularly at the pace at which they are expected to deal with it,” Carlton says.

Faced with such pressures, some succumb to the temptation to self-medicate.

Any California lawyer or judge, their families and colleagues may call the personal assistance program at 1-800/341-0572 24 hours a day. Callers frequently are referred to a local therapist for up to three free visits. Many of the therapists are themselves ex-attorneys.

Those who have drinking problems can call The Other Bar, a free, confidential 24-hour service at 1-800/222-0767. Dawson said the organization’s five consultants in northern and southern California average 90 to 100 calls a month. Depending on the severity of the problem, responses can range from a referral to a rehabilitation center to an intervention by friends and family with the help of a trained facilitator.

Four hundred lawyers currently belong to The Other Bar, which holds 35 weekly meetings around the state, usually attended by between 10 and 30 people.

So severe is the problem of substance abuse that the State Bar has required its members to educate themselves about it for one hour every three years as part of its continuing education requirement. Despite being perhaps the most controversial requirement, The Other Bar president Rick Ewaniszyk said each class typically produces at least one call to The Other Bar.

“By planting the seed, we get a call down the line when the problem gets worse,” he said.

Those who don’t make that call often find themselves in the bar’s discipline system, referred by a judge who may have seen a lawyer under the influence in court, referred by the court system itself after a DUI conviction, or as a result of client complaints which lead to charges of misconduct.

The bar’s discipline system generally offers three options to an attorney with a drinking problem, Bassios explains. A first-time conviction for DUI or a similar charge can result in a free pass, he said, depending on the extent of public harm and potential for harm, which always are important factors in any decision at this level. Second and subsequent convictions result in an evaluation for a discipline proceeding and often a filing of charges. Frequently, says Bassios, that attorney is still on probation for the first offense. In these cases, an attorney also can reach an agreement in lieu of discipline if he or she is in rehabilitation and the harm is minimal.

Once a formal proceeding is initiated, the attorney can be given a stayed suspension and placed on probation, with requirements which might include attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, random testing and an order to file declarations. Probation can be revoked if the attorney violates its terms.

Regardless of the nature of the charges, Bassios says addiction may be considered a mitigating factor in an attorney’s problems but it is never a defense for misconduct.

The Senate Office of Research currently is studying lawyer assistance programs in other states and may recommend legislation before the end of the year to create a recovery program for California attorneys with drug or alcohol problems or mental illness.

Both The Other Bar and the Lawyers Personal Assistance Program hope to market their services more aggressively as the State Bar’s funding recovers from the gubernatorial veto of 1997. Carlton, who reaches a couple of thousand attorneys each year through MCLE classes, hopes to increase the personal assistance program’s outreach efforts. Dawson said The Other Bar hopes to hire consultants in Sacra-mento and the central valley; it has a web site and advertises regularly.

Dawson said he is encouraged that the public has begun to understand that alcoholism is a disease rooted in an individual’s physiology and is not a lack of will power. But as Ewaniszyk recently told the bar’s board of governors, substance abusers “have a moral obligation to seek help. The disease is not an excuse.”