Substance-Abuse Impairing Legal Ethics

Substance abuse continues to be a significant problem among the legal profession and continues to show higher rates of addiction when compared to those in other occupations. There are many challenges to legal ethics principles posed by lawyers succumbing to alcoholism and/or addiction, and attorneys should be aware of how the legal profession is currently seeking (and/or ought to establish) to prevent or remedy such problems.

Attendees will gain insights about proposals for proactively preventing such problems rather than merely reactively and/or remedially responding to issues relating to lawyers already suffering from alcoholism and/or addiction. Even lawyers not suffering from alcoholism or addiction have a professional responsibility to learn about, and apply critical analysis to, the legal profession's ongoing efforts to prevent, or attempt to remediate, problems for the profession, by lawyers suffering from alcoholism and/or addiction.  Lawyers who are "recovering" from either condition (or both) can contribute valuable insights in an interactive seminar on the subject, such as this seminar.

The format of this program combines the lecture method with the Socratic method, fostering extensive interactive participation and critical analysis of a broad range of issues relevant to the seminar's subject matter. This approach goes beyond merely chronological descriptions of specific topics and subtopics.  In other words, the content of each workshop (and the order and extent of emphasis upon particular topics and subtopics) will be substantially influenced by the nature and extent of interactive participation regarding specific aspects thereof. Depending on the number of participants in a particular seminar, the format typically results in most, if not all, participants engaging in conversational-style, interactive discussions and analyses of specific topics during the seminar, and also permits interruptions, questions, challenges, and other contributions throughout the seminar. Think of collegially enjoyable and enlightening round-table discussions.  It's a form of learning that involves thinking while interactively participating, rather than learning solely by listening (the latter of which is the lecture method).

All attorneys are encouraged to attend as each lawyer has a professional responsibility to understand how the legal profession and the courts are currently seeking to (a) reduce the number of lawyers succumbing to such problems, (b) provide practical remedial assistance when needed, (c) apply suitable disciplinary measures when necessary, and (d) to consider developing programs, tools or methods to proactively prevent from ever getting onto that slippery slope to alcoholism and/or addiction.

Learning Objectives:

1. Refresh what should be every lawyer's common knowledge of unique aspects of the legal profession in contrast to all other professions, occupations, etc.:  It's the effect of our Constitution's (and each state constitution's) vesting of "the judicial power" of the sovereign in its "Supreme Court"  and its thereby incorporation of the evolutionary nature of the judiciary's common law inherent judicial power (i.e., sui generis power) to define, prescribe, and enforce educational, moral, ethical and civil standards for the practice of law and the status of lawyers as officers of the courts.
2. Understand that in exercising such common law inherent judicial power (sui generis power) in an adversarial system created under common law, the supreme court of the sovereign (i.e., the U.S. Supreme Court and each state supreme court) creates structural and functional tools for the administration of justice -- i.e.,  rules of evidence, burdens of proof, procedural rules, and regulatory control over the conduct of attorneys. 
3. Recognize how the judiciary generally encourages lawyers to participate actively in the regulatory control over the legal profession and the conduct of lawyers individually.  Therefore, each lawyer must stay informed about disciplinary and regulatory activities and, whenever possible, actively participate in and support them (pro bono, of course).
4. Examine the "illness" nature of alcoholism or addiction is necessary to develop and implement regulatory measures to provide remedial assistance to those suffering from such illness. Still, attorneys cannot permit the noble goal of remediation to completely eclipse the profession's ethical (and moral) responsibility to also apply common-sensical judgment in evaluating the degree to which volitional choices played a role in the creation of the illness and are needed in a process seeking recovery therefrom.  Nor should attorneys exclude consideration of whether new, proactive programs, methods, or tools could prevent lawyers from ever getting onto that slippery slope towards alcoholism or addiction.
5. Explore how the public perceives the legal profession as a "self-regulating profession" underscores the duty of the attorneys to handle this regulatory responsibility in ways that increase, rather than diminish, the public's confidence in our legal system. 
6. Assess how the legal profession owes to the public and to the legal system a duty to avoid letting compassion unduly repress the sense of responsibility to protect our system of justice from the too-widespread perception among the public that lawyers can always avoid the consequences of their shortcomings or misconduct, which perception undermines the public's confidence in our judicial system as the best created by human civilization thus far.

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Central Time: 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Mountain Time: 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Pacific Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Alaska Time: 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Wednesday, March 4, 2026