From the Executive Director, 1017 GABJ, GSB Vol. 23, No. 2, Pg. 14

AuthorJEFF DAVIS, Executive Director State Bar of Georgia

From the Executive Director

Vol. 23 No. 2 Pg. 14

Georgia Bar Journal

October, 2017

JEFF DAVIS, Executive Director State Bar of Georgia

Georgia Lawyers Helping Lawyers

In August, following months of hard work by members of our Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP) Committee, the State Bar of Georgia announced the establishment of our new Georgia Lawyers Helping Lawyers program. This is an additional tool for the State Bar to help our members who are going through rough times. This peer-to-peer program will provide our colleagues who need assistance with a fellow Bar member to be there, listen and help.

Lawyers Helping Lawyers (LHL) is a continuation of the Bar's effort to assist our members with life's difficulties-including but not limited to depression, stress, alcohol or drug abuse, family problems, workplace conflicts and mental health issues.

"Based on my experience as a member of the ABA's Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs Advisory Committee, I am convinced that Georgia's new peer program is the most confidential and technologically advanced program in the country and will be a model for other states," said LAP Committee Chair Jeffrey R. Kuester. "A famous philosopher once said, 'Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.' Concerned peers can provide accountability and feedback that help us avoid self-deception. We all remember how meaningful it was for us to receive important advice during our most difficult times, so we should all give back and be good stewards of the wisdom we have received."

Lynn S. Garson, the LAP Committee member who spearheaded the effort to create LHL, said the goal of the peer program "is to utilize the Bar's best resource for helping lawyers who are struggling with a range of issues—each other. I have personally suffered from depression and anxiety (voluntarily hospitalized three times between 2000 and 2010), and there is no doubt that my road to recovery was founded on developing a lay community of support."

LHL is the first attorney peer program of its kind in the country, simultaneously guaranteeing anonymity while also leveraging the benefits of online technology. Garson says the timeliness of this initiative is underscored by a recent New York Times article, "The Lawyer, the Addict," written by Eilene Zimmerman, the ex-wife of a "high-powered Silicon Valley attorney" who died of a drug overdose.

In her investigation, Zimmerman discovered not only her ex-husband's...

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