The Ethics of Addiction in the Legal Profession

Family law can be a physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding practice. But when a family law attorney’s client, opposing counsel, or the family law attorney themselves are battling addictions, they must focus their attention on yet another issue: their ethical obligations regarding what, if anything, to say or do. Unfortunately, statistics suggest that family law attorneys are likely to encounter clients or colleagues battling addiction and might battle addiction themselves. According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 22 percent of males and 17 percent of females used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs within the last year, and in 2018 almost 19 million people over the age of 12 needed substance abuse treatment. Regarding lawyers specifically, according to a Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation report published in 2017, 39.5 percent of women and 33.7 percent of men in legal professions reported problematic drinking behaviors. More recently, in Bloomberg Law’s 2022 Attorney Workload and Hours Survey, 7.6 percent of attorneys reported they abused alcohol or drugs in the past quarter.