Getting Started

I was sitting in a Trial Lawyers’ Association seminar and, at the end of the day, a video was shown. When the video began to portray a lawyer beset by problems caused by his alcohol abuse, I sat mesmerized in my seat.

It was just after Christmas 2003 when I got the news that my brother, at the age of 45 and eight years younger than I was, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had only months to live. He had a great marriage and three teenage sons. My brother and I were very close. Mom and Dad and my sister were devastated, and I was shocked.

In 2008, I was a young, happy lawyer, enjoying my family and with relatively few worries. Then, I suffered a seizure and was diagnosed with brain cancer. Suddenly, all my plans for the future were up in the air and I was really scared. I reached out for help from the Lawyers Assistance Program and am tremendously grateful for the support provided.

It is funny how once something is lost, it takes on greater value. I had that experience with a job. I lost it, and suddenly in my mind it was the only job I was born to do. I had never thought of it that way before.

I contacted LAP when another lawyer, who was also a good friend, suggested that I call Derek LaCroix. I was a first-year law student, and I had begun to worry: law school was going to come to an end in two short years, and I was living with secrets.

Addiction to work can be as insidious and destructive as an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Ironically, our society (this profession in particular) tends to hail dedication to one’s job as the ultimate virtue. But that dedication almost cost me my marriage and mental health. My substance of choice was not booze, marijuana or cocaine – it was work.