While there's more awareness than ever about the high rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse in the legal profession, it's less well-recognized how an attorney's impairment can lead to malpractice claims and overall liability for their law firms. (Credit: Shutterstock)
When Dan Donnelly, who oversees claims at ALAS, a malpractice insurer to large law firms, hears about claims arising from an attorney's impairment, stress is often at the root of it: a parent's death, a child's illness, a divorce.
"There are just one too many things that put [the attorney] over the top" and the lawyer shuts down, missing deadlines for the client, said Donnelly, senior vice president of claims at ALAS. "A patent lawyer will stop filing patent applications for his clients" but will lie to the client about the filing, Donnelly said. "Because of stress, impairment, they had gotten themselves in a hole and just didn't deal with it — and now they're trying to cover it."
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Christine Simmons
Christine Simmons writes about the New York legal community and the business of law. Email her at [email protected] and find her on Twitter @chlsimmons
