If you like an occasional beer, or highball, forget it. Alcohol is a depressant. For many lawyers, watching a colleague suffer from chemical dependency is a frustrating and confusing experience. Often it is tempting to do nothing and hope that the problem solves itself. Unfortunately, alcoholism is a chronic illness and can be fatal if untreated.
Alcoholism is the ninth leading cause of death in the United States.
Even in situations that are not yet life threatening, the price for ignoring the problem is incredibly high. First, there is the alcoholic's personal and professional devastation. Second, members of the lawyer's firm must share responsibility for mistakes or misdeeds deeds of the addicted lawyer, either through malpractice suits or professional discipline for failure to assure that all members of the firm conform to the ethics rules. More importantly, the unchecked advance of alcohol dependency in lawyers can adversely affect competent representation of clients' legal matters and ultimately destroy public trust in the legal profession. Colleagues of an impaired lawyer may feel embarrassed, confused, angry, resentful, anxious, guilty, or helpless to address the situation.