March 2019
TOPIC: Focusing on Wellness and Well-Being
PROMPT: Brian Cuban’s best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer, Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow, & Redemption is an unflinching look back at how addiction and other mental health issues destroyed his career as a once successful lawyer and how he and others in the profession redefined their lives in recovery and found redemption. Stories like this are more and more common as the legal profession deals with a higher than average rate of alcoholism, depression, and other mental health issues. The ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs has promoted many ideas for wellness and stress management for lawyers, but what more can be done? How can we alleviate some of the stress on law students and lawyers? How can we make wellness a centerpiece of law school curriculum and law firm training programs?