Lawyers struggle with substance abuse at nearly twice the rate of general population
Each year, there are an estimated 97,500 deaths due to the effects of alcohol. As compared to other professions in America, lawyers are nearly twice as likely to struggle with alcohol abuse, according to the Lawyer Assistance Program.
In response to this upsetting statistic, members of the Brooklyn Bar Association say that this month’s CLE meeting, entitled “Don’t Shoot the Messenger: A Tattler’s Tale; Ethical Considerations and Impaired Lawyers,” was one of their most important events of the year.
“What we’ve learned from the statistics is that the legal profession has a higher incidence of both alcoholism and depression,” Hon. Sarah Krauss, acting Supreme Court justice in Kings County Family Court, explained. “So this whole idea has come up from the grassroots, from people in recovery, who saw that they needed to help their colleagues.”