Substance abuse is a controversial topic in the legal profession. Although law firm culture is changing, some lawyers still rely on happy hours and martini lunches as an informal way to meet clients. Unfortunately, many violations of state bar disciplinary codes can be traced to alcoholism and drug abuse. For this reason, and to prepare students for the realities of legal practice, I began teaching the topic of substance abuse in my Professional Responsibility class in 2007.
In the midst of the Great Recession, alcohol and drug abuse is skyrocketing among lawyers. Lawyer Assistance Programs throughout the country are reporting higher demands for their services since the recession began. In addition to the ordinary stresses of life as lawyers, our current students and recent graduates are facing increasingly burdensome student loans and reduced job opportunities. These pressures, and the direct link between rising stress and rising substance abuse in the legal profession, combine to make substance abuse a relevant and important subject for PR classes during this recession.
This is not an easy topic for law professors. Substance abuse is a personal matter for many lawyers and law students. According to a 2009 survey of Professional Responsibility Courses at American Law Schools, 22.9% of PR professors do not teach substance abuse issues in their classes, and only 7.3% spent more than two class hours on the topic. (Survey here.) Law professors justifiably do not want to be perceived as “preaching” to their students, and they are concerned about discussing moral or social issues in a law school classroom. Perhaps more importantly, many of us are not trained in substance abuse or mental health counseling. How can PR classes provide a forum for these issues without engaging students and professors in an uncomfortable dialogue outside of a professor’s expertise?
I considered these issues when deciding whether to include a substance abuse class in my PR syllabus. As a new and relatively young law professor, I did not want to be viewed as overstepping the boundary between professor and student. I chose to invite a guest lecturer for this topic for two purposes: first, to provide the expertise I did not possess; and second, to bring legitimacy to this topic from a “real world” perspective. I timed the lecture carefully, assigning this class toward the end of the semester when I had already established a rapport with students and understood the dynamic of that particular semester’s class. I assigned the chapter on substance abuse in the textbook written by Richard Zitrin and Carol Langford. For some students, the fact that these readings are included in our previously assigned textbook lends credibility to the topic.
The choice of guest lecturer is obviously an important component. With the slowdown in law firm hiring, it is less probable that a graduate will be confronted with the perils of an open bar at a firm retreat at the Four Seasons. It is far more likely that the student or recent graduate will be facing substance abuse temptations as a way to handle the frustrations of unemployment. Graduates who obtain employment may worry about job security and push themselves to stay ahead of the competition, using drugs to enable them to bill more hours than their peers. Alternatively, a lawyer could be trapped working for a supervisor with a substance abuse problem and have no replacement job prospects. A guest lecturer must recognize these challenges facing graduates in a realistic and non-judgmental manner.
It is useful to connect the topic of substance abuse with another area of the syllabus, such as Bar discipline. Accordingly, I ask a prosecutor from the California State Bar to visit my PR class to discuss substance abuse every semester. This prosecutor articulates the costs of substance abuse for lawyers in terms of disciplinary proceedings and revoked bar licenses. She emphasizes the difficulties of obtaining a law license, providing a stark contrast to how easily the license may be lost.
She also explains the resources available in California to law students and lawyers, including the Lawyer Assistance Program and The Other Bar. She makes the State Bar’s contact information available for students who may have questions, allowing them to confidentially contact someone other than their professor if they have a question about the impact of alcohol or drug abuse on their professional goals. As an added bonus, law students always perk up and pay attention when a State Bar prosecutor walks into the classroom.
This particular prosecutor believes in the importance of substance abuse discussions in law schools, and makes an effort to visit all law schools in San Francisco as frequently as possible. During her lecture, she never asks individual questions of students. A substance abuse lecture is not an appropriate venue for the Socratic method, since some students would be uncomfortable discussing this topic in public.
Occasionally, students may volunteer their own experiences. For example, a student who was a member of California’s Lawyer Assistance Program reached out to me before the class to offer to help his fellow students. He chose to identify himself as someone in recovery in order to provide another resource to students who may be facing drug or alcohol problems. Students consistently report on class evaluations that they appreciate the substance abuse class and the opportunity to meet a State Bar representative while in law school.
Law professors may be limited in our abilities to assist our graduates as they navigate employment in a difficult economy. However, our role as PR professors does provide us with a unique opportunity to discuss issues related to the recession that would not be suitable in other classes. If nothing else, the fact that law students learn about substance abuse in a formal class setting may encourage them to stop and think before indulging too much at networking happy hours or firm events. For students or recent graduates feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of unemployment, a PR class on substance abuse may enable them to realize there can be professional consequences for turning to alcohol or drugs to escape stress.