God Grant me the serenity to accept the

God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, the Courage to change things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Who do we want to be? • What attorneys do when we are at the top of our game

Another way of thinking about ethics • Ethics as describing a pattern of identity: • What “sorts of people” are we becoming?

Oscar Wilde: “The thing about sin is not really what we do; it is who we become. ”

Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I get there?

The joy of stats! • Conservative estimate: • One in five attorneys suffer from alcoholism or other substance abuse.

Alcoholism/ Addiction: a disease • • Manifested by Physiological components Genetic predisposition Defined psychological aspects and patterns of behavior.

Attorneys and Addiction • Much more difficult time getting and staying sober than rest of population.

Attorneys and Depression • Per Johns Hopkins Study: – Attorneys lead country in rate of depression – As of 1996, attorneys overtook dentists as profession with the highest rate of suicide

Model Rule 8. 3 • 8. 3 Reporting professional misconduct. • (a) A lawyer who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to that lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects, shall inform the appropriate professional authority.

Functional Alcoholics • Great workers. • Lousy people.

• NEBRASKA LAWYERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM • 1 -(888) 584 -6527 (NLAP)

What do we take from this? • Law is your job, not your life; • Don’t confuse the two

We are problem solvers. We just need the courage to change things we can.