Health / Wellness, Legal Ethics

And Now For Something Completely Different … Not

The stigma around mental health issues still exists and must be addressed.

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Troubled Bearded BusinessmanA disbarred (I would hope so) California attorney (not Tom Girardi) is off to the federal pokey for 12 years after bilking clients out of settlement funds. Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? Phillip Layfield’s firm had offices in California, Arizona, and in Utah. He snarfed approximately $2 million of an almost $4 million settlement and used those funds for various and sundry personal purposes, including purchase of a horse and shipping other horses to Costa Rica where he holed up until returned to the United States, where he was popped in New Jersey. Layfield also used some of the embezzled funds to pay other clients. Ponzi scheme? Whatever.

But wait, there’s more. (There usually is.) Layfield also failed to pay payroll taxes, failed to pay income taxes, and lied about his finances to obtain a loan. Is 12 years long enough?

An Orange County (home of Disneyland) prosecutor was fired after an external investigation determined that the prosecutor had violated Brady v. Maryland by failing to turn over documents to the defense in a murder case. The result? The defendant gets a new trial.

But that’s not all. An internal memo has surfaced which claims that the Orange County DA made racist remarks at a meeting to recommend possible punishment for a Black defendant charged with murdering two people due to jealousy over an ex-girlfriend who is white. That fired prosecutor wrote the memo. A violation of the new California Racial Justice Act? Sounds like it.

The OCDA’s office has not been immune from controversy. A years-long jailhouse snitch scandal ended without any charges being filed, but there were collateral consequences for some public officials, including the forced recusal of the DA’s office by the trial court. As a result of the snitch scandal, the defendant who murdered eight people was spared the death penalty. It was his deputy public defender who relentlessly pursued the jailhouse snitch claims.

And from snark to sadness once again in the “This Sucks” department. Lawyers are often seen as callous, hard-hearted, and only concerned about the billables, and this example only reinforces that image.

This kind of conduct is dreadful. So, the solution for grief is to work harder, take on the work immediately that the associate left behind? Really? No time for grieving, no time for mourning, no time to process the loss. Doesn’t everyone know that grief has its own timetable, irrespective of demands? Grief doesn’t care about deadlines nor billable hours. Should we cut this firm some slack? What do you think?

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I refuse to believe that work cannot be delayed for a little while. Law firms are not emergency rooms, and matters of life and death are rarely that for legal work. If they are, then now, more than ever, we need to manage expectations, our clients, our families, and friends, and our own. Treat this attorney’s unnecessary and untimely passing with dignity and respect. Perhaps a little introspection might be a good idea. Were any warning signs missed? Any concerns about workload, office politics, personal matters? Anything that could have been done differently? Were there signals? If so, were they obvious or subtle? Questions should be asked.

Another young woman lawyer, a social justice warrior, also recently died by suicide.

We as lawyers, but more importantly, as colleagues and humans, need training to recognize and help with mental health issues. People are not pieces of lint on collars to be brushed aside. They should command our utmost attention. We need to take a good, long look at ourselves, our work loads, and the profession’s often unreasonable demands so that we can avert any more needless tragedies. Dreaming, aren’t I?

I have been in this profession for almost 50 years (including three years of law school). Now I see it is an unceasingly hungry monster, crying, “Feed me, feed me,” like Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

We should all be ashamed, whether in these situations or any in the future. We are all complicit in this never-ending marathon. We need to dial in to others who are struggling and spend some precious billable hours doing something much more important: saving lives.

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The ABA has a lawyer well-being toolkit.

I think every law firm of whatever size, from solo to gazillion, every corporate legal department, every government agency should have this resource. Among other items, the toolkit has a suggested policies and practices audit. We get so involved/absorbed, whatever, by the daily demands of the practice that we forget that we are people, attorneys, support staff, all collaborating to put out the best work. In our haste to do our best, we can and do lay waste to the best resource we have, that is, our people. Contrary to some thinking, peeps are not fungible. Witness the Great Resignation.

The stigma around mental health issues still exists and must be addressed. People fear for their jobs if there’s any disclosure of perceived “weakness,” but if we don’t discuss these issues, then we should fear for their lives and ours. These two women attorneys are only the latest two lawyers I have written about who died by suicide. Every death by suicide is unacceptable. Survivor’s guilt is real.

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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