Educational Programs

Life and work during the COVID pandemic have been challenging for many people, including legal professionals. These challenges are multifaceted and, at times, seemingly unrelenting. While a post-COVID world may seem distant right now, current circumstances give rise to unique stressors. As the profession adjusts to rapidly changing circumstances, those quick decisions we must make may be based on implicit biases and assumptions. The pandemic has affected people differently. For some, it exacerbated an underlying health or addiction issue, for others, a new problem developed. For many in our profession, stigma continues to prevent them from seeking the help they need. This program will address the profession’s changing landscape, explore the effects of implicit bias and stigma, and offer perspectives and coping tools.

Lawyers face stress daily and are subject to circumstances that can lead to higher stress levels than those with other careers. There is a clearly recognized continuum where unresolved chronic stress becomes a predictor for substance use problems and mental illness, particularly depression, which are also more prevalent among lawyers.  By understanding this continuum and the facts about addiction and mental illness, lawyers can reduce their risk and, hopefully, get help earlier when there is a mental health or addiction/dependency problem.  This program will present signs, symptoms, risk factors, and recovery regarding these problems.  The presenter will also provide personal examples and information on Minnesota’s lawyer assistance program.

This program is designed for colleagues and managers who may observe changes in behavior that give rise to concerns.  It discusses how to recognize and obtain help when you, a work colleague, or another professional colleague may have substance use, mental health, or other issues that affect behavior, conduct, and performance.  Topics include understanding the issues, special considerations for remote work, approaching the lawyer (including interventions), arranging assistance such as treatment, and practice management issues during and following a reduced work schedule or leave of absence.  Colleagues can save careers, families, and lives by taking action.

The legal profession is at risk for high stress levels and mental health challenges in the best of times. During challenging times, our professional and personal lives may seem out of control, and this can affect our work and relationships. This program will identify normal feelings, reactions, and behaviors and recognize when they cause concern. It will examine the role of stigma and bias in preventing us from asking for and accessing help for mental health issues. The program will also identify tools to cope and thrive while developing and enhancing skills to identify and address individual needs.

Implicit bias discussions in the legal profession must include mental health (including substance use) and stress issues.  This program will begin with a general understanding of the concept of implicit bias and discuss how implicit bias stands in the way of lawyers seeking the help they need for mental health, stress, and well-being.  While it’s hard for anyone to ask for help, there is a double stigma for those already in underrepresented groups.  This program will address the challenges faced by lawyers, judges, and law students when asking for help for mental health issues. It will also address the relationship between mental health issues and diversity and inclusion. The program includes a discussion of strategies to overcome these issues.

The stress lawyers face is a predictor for depression, and untreated depression is the #1 predictor for suicide.  Lawyers must also deal with the fact that clients can be suicidal.  This program will help you understand the facts and myths about suicide; recognize signs and indicators for clinical depression, anxiety, and suicide; and provide resources and a protocol for offering and seeking help to prevent suicide.

In the best of circumstances, the practice of law is stressful. In addition to the higher levels of stress legal professions endure, we are often exposed to traumatic events and situations of varying intensity. Both stress and trauma exact physical, emotional, and mental tolls on our well-being. This program examines the effects of chronic and acute stress, the four types of trauma, and the role that bias and stigma play in our ability to manage our well-being effectively through challenging times.

Lawyers often see clients who appear to be suffering from substance misuse, addiction, or other impairments.  While it is not our job to diagnose, what is our role, responsibility, and opportunity? How do our biases govern our actions and behaviors?  What if the issue is not with a client but with a colleague?  The answers are seldom simple. This program will provide an ethical framework for lawyers facing these questions in addition to practical guidance and resources.

Our profession and our clients are aging.  Learn about mental health (including cognitive impairment) and addiction issues and the realities, risk factors, and resources specific to older adults.  Understand unique barriers to getting help for older adults, characteristics of older adult mental health, chemical dependency and gambling problems, and the difference between dementia, grief, and depression.  The program will touch on ethical issues if an impairment is present and offer a protocol to encourage someone to get help.

LCL can customize the program to discuss specific initiatives, stakeholder groups, or other ways.  It is available in lecture format with audience participation or as a group presentation.

This groundbreaking and comprehensive report, released in August 2017, was created by a coalition of entities from the American Bar Association and throughout the profession.  It contains 44 recommendations for 7 groups of stakeholders along with an action plan.

The coalition stated, “We are at a crossroads. To maintain public confidence in the profession, to meet the need for innovation in how we deliver legal services, to increase access to justice, and to reduce the level of toxicity that has allowed mental health and substance use disorders to fester among our colleagues, we have to act now.”

The report’s recommendations focus on five central themes:

• Identifying stakeholders and the role each can play in reducing the level of toxicity in the legal profession
• Eliminating the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors
• Emphasizing that well-being is an indispensable part of a lawyer’s duty of competence
• Educating lawyers, judges, and law students on lawyer well-being issues
• Taking small, incremental steps to change how law is practiced and how lawyers are regulated to instill greater well-being in the profession

LCL dedicates our efforts to disseminate the report on The Path to Lawyer Well-Being to the memory of David Brink, ABA President 1981-82 and past member of the LCL Board of Directors. 

This program is based on the February 2016 article of the same name published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.  The presentation will include the study findings on substance use and mental health issues.  Barriers to seeking help and recommendations are offered in a discussion format.

Gambling is normative behavior in many adults. Approximately 3% of gamblers will experience problems. Compulsive, problem or pathological gambling is often called the “hidden illness” because few outward signs and symptoms are present as with substance use disorders. The biases that keep someone from seeking help for a gambling problem can also be greater.  Colleagues, families, and friends of problem gamblers are often shocked when they learn about a problem and how serious it has become.  Often this comes up in the context of a legal matter.  Lawyers and their clients are both affected by gambling addiction. Learn about problem gambling, how to recognize the signs and symptoms, what you can do, and what resources, including treatment, are available.

Attorneys frequently work with clients who have experienced trauma, and this exposure may cause vicarious trauma for the lawyer. We also bring our own experiences, which may include trauma, to our work. This presentation will help legal professionals recognize and address trauma in clients and themselves. Topics also include the role of stigma and bias, understanding trauma and the potential for disability, recognizing and addressing trauma in clients, and the impact of current events. 

Lawyers often see clients who appear to be suffering from substance misuse, addiction, or other impairments.  While it is not our job to diagnose, what is our role, responsibility, and opportunity? How do our biases govern our actions and behaviors?  What if the issue is not with a client but with a colleague?  The answers are seldom simple.  This program will provide an ethical framework for lawyers facing these questions in addition to practical guidance and resources.

This program is designed for colleagues and managers who may observe changes in behavior that give rise to concerns.  It discusses how to recognize and obtain help when you, a work colleague, or another professional colleague may have substance use, mental health, or other issues that affect behavior, conduct, and performance.  Topics include understanding the issues, special considerations for remote work, approaching the lawyer (including interventions), arranging assistance such as treatment, and practice management issues during and following a reduced work schedule or leave of absence.  Colleagues can save careers, families, and lives by taking action.

Lawyers often see clients who appear to be suffering from substance misuse, addiction, or other impairments.  While it is not our job to diagnose, what is our role, responsibility, and opportunity? How do our biases govern our actions and behaviors?  What if the issue is not with a client but with a colleague?  The answers are seldom simple. This program will provide an ethical framework for lawyers facing these questions in addition to practical guidance and resources.

LCL can customize the program to discuss specific initiatives, stakeholder groups, or other ways.  It is available in lecture format with audience participation or as a group presentation.

This groundbreaking and comprehensive report, released in August 2017, was created by a coalition of entities from the American Bar Association and throughout the profession.  It contains 44 recommendations for 7 groups of stakeholders along with an action plan.

The coalition stated, “We are at a crossroads. To maintain public confidence in the profession, to meet the need for innovation in how we deliver legal services, to increase access to justice, and to reduce the level of toxicity that has allowed mental health and substance use disorders to fester among our colleagues, we have to act now.”

The report’s recommendations focus on five central themes:

• Identifying stakeholders and the role each can play in reducing the level of toxicity in the legal profession
• Eliminating the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors
• Emphasizing that well-being is an indispensable part of a lawyer’s duty of competence
• Educating lawyers, judges, and law students on lawyer well-being issues
• Taking small, incremental steps to change how law is practiced and how lawyers are regulated to instill greater well-being in the profession

LCL dedicates our efforts to disseminate the report on The Path to Lawyer Well-Being to the memory of David Brink, ABA President 1981-82 and past member of the LCL Board of Directors. 

This program is based on the February 2016 article of the same name published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.  The presentation will include the study findings on substance use and mental health issues.  Barriers to seeking help and recommendations are offered in a discussion format.

For lawyers, missing deadlines and failing to communicate or complete projects may be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to excessive stress and addiction, and mental health issues. Those same issues and others may be present in clients.  When a client is impaired, the lawyer has both obligations and opportunities. There are obligations when the lawyer is impaired, but fortunately, there is also help available.  This program looks at professional responsibility aspects of impairment from both the client and lawyer perspective.

Life and work during the COVID pandemic have been challenging for many people, including legal professionals. These challenges are multifaceted and, at times, seemingly unrelenting. While a post-COVID world may seem distant right now, current circumstances give rise to unique stressors. We’ll discuss the ethical implications of the current state of affairs while also offering perspectives and tools for coping.