LawCare, the charity that assists lawyers who need support with their mental or physical health, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Writing in today’s edition chief executive Elizabeth Rimmer reminds readers that the Gazette played a key part in its foundation.
The Gazette front page for 13 September 1995 carried an article headed ‘Drink Survey’, which reported ‘the first study of alcoholism in the legal profession’. The study was conducted for the Lawyers Support Group, formed in 1983 by lawyers in recovery from alcohol addiction.
It showed ‘that lawyers can experience very severe difficulties in becoming re-employed if they lose their jobs’. They found little in the way of support from their peers, they told researchers. One complained: ‘Local practitioners express their pleasure at my recovery, but even 12 years on they are not willing to back their words with employment.’
As a result, many in the sample had become sole practitioners – not the best place to manage their condition. ‘Sole practitioners were especially vulnerable, and showed, on average, shorter periods of sobriety,’ the report noted. ‘The profession,’ the authors urged, ‘should learn from the medical and dental profession, both of which have special schemes to tackle the problems of the impaired practitioner.’
That appeal got the attention of Council member Robert Venables, Bronwen Still of the professional standards section and Society vice president Charles Elly, who set up a working party. SolCare, as LawCare was first known, set up shop in April 1997.
No comments yet