Revealing The Dark Side Of Law
Burn-out, depression afflict more attorneys in down economy
By DOUGLAS S. MALAN
Enfield attorney Glen Rosenberg had no fancy story, no litany of excuses for his mistake.
He stood in front of Judge James T. Graham at a grievance hearing in Hartford Superior Court on Jan. 22 and explained the situation.
He had undertaken a woman’s personal injury case and subsequently failed to file a lawsuit within the two-year statute of limitations. When he realized what had happened, he notified his malpractice insurance carrier. Then, he told his client.
And after that, he took a seemingly drastic step for a lawyer who had never before been grieved since passing the bar in 1990 and who said he had never before missed a filing date. “I literally decided on the spot…that’s it, I’m out, I’m ending my legal practice,” Rosenberg told Judge Graham last month. “I don’t have anything to excuse my action or inaction.”
But there was more to Rosenberg’s decision to close his solo practice. By his own admission, he had created a difficult set of circumstances for himself and never was able get ahead of the workload. He took cases pro bono and many others without acquiring money up front. In several instances, he never got paid and he said he often was “too altruistic” for his own professional good.
“I burned out,” the 46-year-old Rosenberg told Judge Graham. “It just seemed like endless, endless, endless problems. You put out one fire or flame and another one erupts, and for the last year of my practice I did it making virtually no money at the practice of law. I suppose I was near to depression.”
Judge Graham suspended Rosenberg for 30 days starting on Jan. 30, but Rosenberg probably will be inactive far longer.
“I would prefer not to return to practice of law,” he said. Rosenberg could not be reached for further comment because telephone numbers for him were either unlisted or out of service. He told grievance officials that he was making a living handicapping race horses online.
Rosenberg currently faces a legal malpractice lawsuit from his client, the only such claim brought against him in his career.
Rosenberg’s story is not unique; there are dozens more like him in the state.
‘Quite A Struggle’
James W. Bergenn, of Shipman & Goodwin, represents lawyers in disciplinary proceedings and said he has seen “significant” substance abuse and financial problems that coincide with a downturn in work and fees.
“It’s quite a struggle for solos and small firm people,” Bergenn said. “There are a few that are doing well [financially], but many more that are not.”
The demands of the practice of law have been well-documented, but in this historically bad economy, lawyers are feeling even more strain. Some have crossed the ethics line and absconded with clients’ money. Some have stopped communicating with clients and essentially dropped off the map.
“Some are just lawyers who can no longer keep up with the pressures of the practice,” said Chief Disciplinary Counsel Mark Dubois. His job has become “almost like social work...spending time on the phone with doctors for lawyers who are coming apart.”
One lawyer who is 38 years old with more than 20 complaints against him is considering moving to California to become a cartoonist. Another lawyer in his mid-forties with an alcohol abuse problem plans to move to South Carolina to start a new life after his law license was inactivated for multiple ethics violations.
Disciplinary authorities are fielding an increased amount of grievance complaints at a time when their resources are being cut due to a state budget crisis. The problems are in the traditional areas of communication, diligence and fee disputes, Dubois said.
But the complaint rate is increasing, and solo and small firm attorneys are the ones who are grieved most often. The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel received 430 complaints last year, an increase of 30 percent. At the end of 2008, the OCD had 360 cases pending, 44 percent more than at the end of 2007.
12-Step Programs
Beth Griffin, who is executive director of the Rocky Hill-based Lawyers Concerned For Lawyers crisis intervention and support group, said she has heard from more lawyers who are suffering from depression.
The economy plays a significant part in bringing depression to the fore, and LCL’s services, she believes, have been requested more frequently due to a combination of awareness of her program and a worsening situation for many lawyers in the profession.
LCL already has expanded its 12-step program meetings to Litchfield, Fairfield and New London counties. In LCL’s library, the most popular books are focused on how to use a law degree to change careers. “I can’t keep them on the shelf,” Griffin said.
When LCL started three years ago, “it was mainly small firms and solos,” Griffin said, “but now we’re getting more people from larger firms. Lawyers call about stress and end up talking about how depressed they are.”
The reasons go beyond just the general economy, which has affected many solos who have relied on bread-and-butter practice areas such as real estate to make a living.
In some instances, the economy exposes a faulty business plan in which collections are behind and the client base isn’t diverse enough to provide incoming work.
“Maybe you could cobble it together when times were good, but you just can’t do it anymore,” Griffin observed.
Then there are the lawyers who believed that law was a career that could guarantee a comfortable lifestyle.
“It never ever occurred to me or other lawyers I went to school with that we could be laid off or major firms could be going out of business,” Griffin said.
Now she’s hearing from older lawyers who are nervous because their nest eggs have deflated with the stock markets and dealing with the reality that they’re no longer the celebrated rainmakers at their firms.
Electronic Crush
Attorney Fred Ury of Ury & Moskow in Fairfield also points to the significant baby boomer population in the profession, which constitutes 55 percent of the Connecticut Bar Association’s membership.
He said the rate of attorney misconduct can be attributed partly to desperation felt by lawyers who are rapidly falling behind technological advances.
Ury, who heads a task force on the future of the legal profession, travels the country about five times a year making presentations to other states’ bar associations about the changing nature of the practice of law. “Most of the time, they hate seeing me,” Ury said.
The impact of the Internet and other technology can’t be understated when it comes to older lawyers who are being forced to adapt or wither, Ury said.
“If you’re a new attorney and you think you’re going to be a small, Main Street-type of general firm for simple work, the next generation coming out of college is going to [get legal help] on the Internet,” Ury said. “They’re not going to go to a lawyer.”
Already, the practice of real estate is changing with transactions conducted over the Internet and documents signed electronically. Many other web sites have popped up that offer free legal documents for downloading.
The crush of electronic material is so great that Ury stopped charging for legal documents last year. “Now I give my forms away,” Ury said. “How can I compete with free?”
The successful lawyer of the future will have to adjust to prove the value they add to a transaction, such as explaining the meaning of the free documents and ensuring a client has the proper documents. And they’ll have to be flexible with technological advances.
But meanwhile, many lawyers are caught in the transition, unsure of how to cope with the changing profession and becoming overwhelmed by many factors.
“I think there’s tremendous pressure on a small law firm,” Ury said, “even more significant now” with the faltering economy.
And sometimes, that pressure is fatal.
Dubois, the chief disciplinary counsel, said “dozens of lawyers” between the ages of 50 and 70 have died in past 12 months, including a couple of suicides.
It is a grim reality for which some attorneys are not prepared. “A lot of lawyers are waiting for that ship to come in,” Dubois said, “but, p.s., there’s no ship.”•
The confidential hotline for Lawyers Concerned For Lawyers, a crisis intervention and support group, is 1-800-497-1422.
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