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CCBA Members, take advantage of your 20% discount and purchase, The Lawyer's Guide to Balancing Life and Work, Second Edition, By George W. Kaufman, from the ABA Bookstore If you are dominated by work from the moment you arise until the moment you turn off the lights at night, you are not alone. Years of narrow focus, hard work, pressure, and endless striving for material reward are the hallmark of many lawyers' lives. This book is written specifically to help lawyers achieve professional and personal satisfaction in their career. Discover how the law fits inside you, not how you fit inside the law. George Kaufman addresses the difficulty of dividing time between the law and your personal life, and how to overcome it. Save 20% on purchases made on www.ababooks.org when you use the CCBA Source Code PAB6ECCB. Enter the CCBA Source Code PAB6ECCB upon checkout at the ABA Web site and receive 20% off of the ABA Publications you purchase. **Discount does not apply to ABA-CLE iPod products.** Note: The 20% discount will not be applied if you do not enter the CCBA source code PAB6ECCB.
Center for Professional Responsibility The ABA has an excellent website that provides resources to help you understand and resolve ethics questions that come up in your law practice. Visit their website for immediate access to articles and checklists.
The Spring Valley Club The Spring Valley Club provides AA resources for those in need. View their Web site for meeting details.
Generation Gaps in the Legal World The GCSouth Daily Report published an article in its June 11, 2008 edition titled Panel: Generation gaps carry through to legal world. We invite you to read this intriguing article in its entirety, and share your thoughts and comments with your colleagues in the CCBA discussion forum.
Work-Life Balance, Making it Work for You To promote health and wellness, the American Bar Association has made available a toolkit full of resources that would be valuable for any legal organization. As CCBA supports efforts to educate and achieve a work-life balance, we invite you to learn more about the toolkit The ABA also has several books on this topic available at its web store. Don’t forget that your CCBA membership entitles you to a 20 percent discount on your purchases. Visit our Membership Benefits page to retrieve your discount code! Finding help at your fingertipsWork-life balance has become a recruitment and retention issue for many firms from both a management and associate perspective. During the 1980s, professionals adopted the motto, "Work hard, play hard."Today, that approach is acknowledged to lead to burnout, depression and other stress-related issues. Instead the motto has become, "Work hard, live well."For lawyers who want to learn more about achieving work-life balance, there are a number of resources. First, the American Bar Association Web site lists books at its Web store.There are also a number of Web sites that provide helpful tips and checklists to help people understand whether they are making the best use possible of their time and to realize their personal priorities.For a list of publications and Web sites that offer information on keeping work in perspective, click here. © 2008 American Bar Association
Top Warning Signs a Colleague—or You—May Need Help If you know what to look for, the signs warning of impairment are there. While it may seem easy to pick up on warning signs exhibited by colleagues, it is also important to know what to look for in yourself.Here is a list of the warning signs of impairment in a colleague: - Absenteeism.
- Unexplained or repeated absences or tardiness for court appearances, depositions, etc.
- Peculiar or improbable excuses for absences.
- Confusion or difficulty in concentration.
- Difficulty in recalling instructions, details, etc.
- Increasing difficulty in handling complex assignments.
- Difficulty in recalling own mistakes.
- Work requires more effort than it should.
- Spasmodic work patterns.
- Alternate periods of high and low productivity.
- Generally lowered job efficiency.
- Missed deadlines.
- Mistakes due to inattention or poor judgment.
- Making bad decisions.
- Complaints from clients.
- Improbable excuses for poor performance.
- Poor interpersonal relationships.
- Overreaction to real or imagined criticism.
- Wide swings in morale or mood.
- Unreasonable resentments or hostility.
- Excessive suspicion.
- Physical problems/symptoms.
- Complaints of fatigue.
- Back pains or other vague medical problems.
- Complaints of stomach problems or nausea.
- Repeated hospitalizations and/or accidents.
- Observable physical signs such as bleary eyes, wobbliness, shakes, flushed face, widely dilated or tightly constricted pupils, bloodshot eyes, staggering, blank look/expressionless, standing or sitting immobile (as if in a trance), hand or leg tremors, downcast or disheveled appearance, slurred speech, lethargy, restlessness/nervousness/anxiety, panic reaction, facial tic, excessive talking, disoriented thoughts ("word salad"), silence.
- Financial or legal problems.
- DUI's
- Client complaints such as failure to communicate or return telephone calls, failure to appear at hearings or depositions, or missing statute of limitations dates
- Trust account violations or misappropriation of client funds.
- Appearing in court or elsewhere in an obviously abnormal condition.
Here is a list of questions to help you assess your own impairment:Within the past 12 months, have you: - Tried to control or stop drinking or using?
- Needed more to achieve the same high, or gotten less effect from the same amount?
- Experienced withdrawal symptoms or continued to use despite having problems
stemming from drug use? - Driven a vehicle or operated machinery under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
- Experienced a blackout?
Is alcohol or drug use: - Your primary method to relieve stress?
- Interfering with work? Are you missing appointments, court dates?
- Causing decreased ambition or efficiency?
- Disrupting personal relationships?
Addiction is a chronic progressive disease of the brain. It can significantly alter areas
of the brain which are crucial to decision making. The stigma is not in having an addiction problem but in failing to get appropriate help. Did you know? - Addiction affects every aspect of ones life?
- Lawyers are twice as likely as the general population to develop problems with
substance abuse and other addictive disorders? - People struggling with addiction are incapable of connecting the drug use and the unmanageability in their lives.
- Family members, friends and colleagues know there is an addiction problem way before the addict knows.
- Addiction is a treatable disease.
As with any medical illness, education and prevention can save lives. The earlier that you help a colleague or yourself identify signs and symptoms, the sooner appropriate measures can be applied to help.For more information in Las Vegas, contact Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers at (702) 455-4827 or the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs at www.abanet.org/legalservices/colap.© 2008 American Bar Association
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