The chronic abuse of alcohol by lawyers causes them poor health; progressive mental and physical disability; progressive loss of competence to practice law accompanied by client complaints to the State Bar and legal malpractice claims; depression; social isolation; and premature death from cirrhosis, cancer, heart disease, dementia or suicide. Thanks to a culture which promotes drinking, enabling behavior by colleagues and the tendency of lawyers who are dependent on alcohol to deny their dependence, the plague of alcoholism runs rampant in our profession. Twenty percent of all the lawyers in the U.S. are alcoholics. In this lecture we look at the genetic, familial, neurological, psychological, social and occupational factors that cause and perpetuate alcoholism. The phenomenon of alcoholic cravings – where they come from and how to deal with them effectively – is discussed. We analyze how to detect alcoholism in oneself and one’s colleagues, the barriers to getting help, how to overcome those barriers, where to get help, what treatments are available, which treatments work and why.

Major depression goes beyond feeling sad or down in the dumps. It causes highly distorted thinking, difficulty concentrating, slowed thinking, energy loss, psycho-somatic symptoms, weight gain, decreased libido, irritability, social withdrawal and suicidal ideation. Left untreated depression can cause alcoholism, hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and premature death from those conditions or suicide. Sadly some 60-80% of people with serious depression do not get treated, largely due to their fear of stigmatization for having a mental illness. People with major depression are twenty-five times more likely to die by suicide than others. One out of every five lawyers has major depression, yet only a fraction of them seek help. Learn the causes of depression. Find out if you or your colleagues have it. Learn how to overcome fear of stigma and get the help you need. Learn how psychotherapy, medication and life style changes (such as managing stress at work, meditating and getting regular, vigorous exercise) can turn things around and restore wellbeing. Find out how to change your thinking patterns and habitual behaviors to protect yourself from depression and lead a healthier, happier existence.

Knowing ethical rules never made any lawyer deal ethically with his client. The impetus for acting ethically is our empathy for our fellow human beings – our ability to sense what they are thinking and feeling, to identify with them and become affected emotionally and to experience the desire to help them, if we can. In this lecture we look at the evolutionary, neurological and psychological foundations of empathy. We explore empathy-impairing conditions that can lead a lawyer to act unethically toward his client including personality characteristics, major depression, substance abuse, financial stress and social isolation. Boosting empathy for your client will make you more likely to comply with ethical rules. We will examine ways to boost your empathy. These include developing a moralnet (a community that actively guides you in how to make moral decisions); understanding that your client’s tendency to see things differently than you is not disrespect for or lack of trust in you, but a facet of how human minds work; meditating (which helps you overcome your tendency to judge/blame others and increases your compassion for them); learning to tune into and really listen to your client instead of always giving him advice; and making a personal effort to let your client know you care about him rather than working so hard behind the scenes you don’t return his calls and make him feel neglected.

Learn the difference between healthy and destructive anger, and how destructive anger damages your health, your social relationships and your ability to persuade or gain cooperation from other people in the legal system. The constant venting of your anger does not make you feel better and help clear the air with others. It re-enforces your tendency to react with anger and teaches others to stay away from you. We will look at the causes of destructive anger including family modeling, the need to be right, the need for control, the need for respect, perfectionism, narcissism, projection, envy, impatience, refusal to forgive, hypoglycemia and the mistaken belief that harming others will make them do what you want. We will explore how to detect destructive anger within and use antidotes to cultivate relaxation, patience, tolerance and mental flexibility. We discuss specific techniques including meditation, deep breathing, the practice of gratitude, acting as if others were worthy of respect, learning humility, relationship-building through listening with an open mind, realizing some disagreement is inevitable, staying mindful of your emotions and choosing peaceful conflict resolution over cathartic but irresponsible unleashing of rage.

Study “implicit bias” as we journey through time to understand its original evolutionary context, how the brain unconsciously divides humanity into separate human kinds which get placed in high status “in-groups” or low status “out-groups,” the destructive role implicit bias plays in our current legal system (including the erosion of legal professionalism), how to gain awareness of it and how to free ourselves from it. On our journey we look at the thought processes and behavior of Ice Age cave people, American slave owners, the Western settlers and U.S. cavalry who killed Native Americans, the Nazis and others before we explore the mindset of today’s lawyers. We travel to Harvard University where the Implicit Association Test has been used to detect hidden bias (us/them categorization) in the most liberal, progressive people. We finish with inspiring, real world examples of how implicit bias has been overcome, examples we can imitate in our law practice and lives.