Washington Lawyer - January/February 2019 - 42

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ASK THE ETHICS EXPERTS

ETHICS
& WELLNESS
By Erika Stillabower

My close friend Jane is
drinking too much. She is a
lawyer at a firm here in the
District, and I suspect that
she won't be able to hide
the problem from her clients
and colleagues much longer.
Another acquaintance
of mine is a member of the D.C. Bar's Lawyer
Assistance Committee (formerly, Lawyer Counseling
Committee), but it's a small world and I'm hesitant
to tell Jane to reach out to him. The last thing I want
to do is damage her career. Is there anything I can
do to help?

In 2016 the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance
Programs and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation published the results
of a national study showing that reported rates of substance abuse among
lawyers are much higher than the rates reported by the general population.
Not surprisingly, those results also showed that fear of others finding out and
confidentiality concerns present significant barriers for lawyers seeking help.

The D.C. Bar strongly encourages lawyers like Jane to seek help. The D.C. Bar Lawyer Assistance
Program offers free, confidential services for lawyers, judges, and law students who are experiencing
problems such as addiction, mental health symptoms, or stress, which interfere with their personal
or professional lives.
Importantly, there is a specific provision in Rule 1.6(i) stating:

1629 K St. Suite 300
N.W. Washington D.C. 20006

(i) For purposes of this rule, a lawyer who serves as a member of the D.C. Bar Lawyer
Counseling Committee, or as a trained intervenor for that committee, shall be deemed to have
a lawyer-client relationship with respect to any lawyer-counselee being counseled under
programs conducted by or on behalf of the committee. Information obtained from another
lawyer being counseled under the auspices of the committee, or in the course of and associated with such counseling, shall be treated as a confidence or secret within the terms of paragraph (b). Such information may be disclosed only to the extent permitted by this rule.
As such, you may suggest that Jane contact a Lawyer Assistance Committee volunteer with
complete confidence that the protections of Rule 1.6, which requires lawyers to keep confidential
information "which would be embarrassing, or would be likely to be detrimental, to a client," attach
to their communications. Rule 1.6(b). To speak to an LAP counselor, please call our confidential
line at 202-347-3131 or email lap@dcbar.org. More information about the LAP can be found at
dcbar.org/bar-resources/lawyer-assistance-program.

https://osioffices.com (202) 600-7777
manager@osioffices.com

42 WASHINGTON LAWYER

D.C. Bar Legal Ethics counsel Hope C. Todd, Saul Jay Singer, and Erika Stillabower are available for inquiries at
ethics@dcbar.org.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

http://www.dcbar.org/bar-resources/lawyer-assistance-program https://www.osioffices.com http://www.dcbar.org/

Washington Lawyer - January/February 2019

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