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, 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."

Wisconsin Lawyer