Biglaw Associate Is Advocating For Therapeutic Use Of Psychedelics -- And The Firm Is Backing Him Up

Advocacy gets personal.

Winston & Strawn associate Brett Waters has a lot more than just Biglaw on his plate these days. The antitrust associate has launched a nonprofit — Reason for Hope — to advocate for the legalization of psychedelic-assisted therapy in the United States.

The advocacy is personal for Waters — he lost both his grandfather and mother to suicide. Since those experiences, he began working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and he learned about research suggesting psychedelic-assisted therapy can make a difference for folks experiencing trauma-related suicidal ideation and treatment-resistant depression. Waters told Law.com these treatments can “facilitate real meaningful healing and the sort of healing that traditional therapy struggles to provide. I believe there’s a huge potential for effectiveness for people who feel isolated and a lack of connectivity.”

And it’s something he wishes were available for his mother:

“If I had made this connection sooner, there’s no doubt I’d have taken my mom out of the country or found of a way of doing it legally. I didn’t make that connection early enough; now I have a pretty serious level of regret,” he said. “Until I get this done, get this changed and get everyone access, I’m going to continue to punish myself.”

But those treatments are not available in this country, hence the need for the Reason for Hope’s legal advocacy. But before Waters began the work, he ran it by Winston & Strawn, in was he characterizes as “one of the more nerve-wracking emails,” but the firm was happy to support him:

“Winston & Strawn has a long and proud history of supporting public interest endeavors both on a firmwide basis and by encouraging our attorneys to pursue individual matters,” a spokeswoman for the firm said. “We support Mr. Waters’ efforts to promote research aimed at helping veterans and others suffering from mental health challenges.”

Seems like Winston & Strawn is stepping up to support the mental health efforts of its attorneys.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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