TLAP is a Treasure of Resources for the Texas Lawyer

One of the best programs the State Bar of Texas provides its members is the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program (TLAP). TLAP is a confidential, respectful, and voluntary program that helps law students, lawyers, judges, and legal employees in the areas of wellness, stress and anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder, suicide prevention, substance abuse, and more recently, cognitive decline. TLAP promotes knowledge and understanding of the risks that the stresses of the legal profession place on lawyer wellness. TLAP has a program to meet the needs of anyone, from helping one person maintain wellness in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to counseling another who may be contemplating suicide.

TLAP provides a strictly confidential 24/7 phone support line that allows members to openly discuss their challenges. The callers can receive therapist recommendations, support from local peers, funding for treatment, after-care support, and access to educational programs. Since being appointed to a three-year term on the committee by then-State Bar President Sylvia Borunda Firth, I have realized just how airtight and inviolate that confidentiality promise is to the staff and members. This is because the fear of a confidentiality breach is one of the main barriers to lawyers seeking help.

I glow with pride when I see how dedicated the staff is to the cause of lawyer wellness in a variety of areas and how the committee, which is composed of leaders from across the state—many of whom have been through the very same burnout or other challenges that cause lawyers to seek help from TLAP—comes together to address member needs. A great example is TLAP professional staff member Paul Jacobs, who shared with me the importance of TLAP in his own life:

The Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program is very special to me. I was a civil litigation attorney for over 30 years, and I burned out, lost focus and motivation. Rather than call TLAP for help, I wrongly chose to self-medicate myself during that rough patch. Despite my training and education, my ignorance as to the underlying cause of my symptoms and the fear of the stigma I might face if I did reach out caused my care to be significantly delayed. As a member of the TLAP family and now a staff member, I share my journey publicly and honestly whenever I can to educate and help attorneys with mental-health and substance-use disorders and to aid in the de-stigmatization of these diseases. It has been my privilege to help suffering attorneys, law students, and judges recover from mental-health and substance-use disorders. It is my hope that the amazing work of TLAP will help suffering attorneys timely seek the treatment they need and to increasingly become more willing to reach out and accept the help they need.

Another benefit TLAP provides is the Sheeran-Cowley Trust, which serves both the substance-use and mental-health needs of Texas lawyers and is funded solely by the contributions of lawyers. The Trust provides financial aid to attorneys who need assistance to pay for treatment or other forms of help. Visit tlaphelps.org for more information on this valuable program.

We are fortunate to have the exceedingly capable and wonderful-to-work-with Erica Grigg as our executive director of TLAP. She works tirelessly and travels the state to educate lawyers on what TLAP does and the services they provide to Texas lawyers. Erica is dedicated to attorney wellness and knows firsthand the effects of burn out. She candidly shared the immense impact TLAP has made on her: My involvement with TLAP saved my life. Making that call 13 years ago when I was in treatment for a substance-use disorder and major depressive disorder connected me to a network of attorneys who had been exactly where I was at that moment. Their willingness to share their own experiences and how they were able to reclaim their lives and law practices showed me it was possible to find hope again.

One of the highlights of Erica’s involvement with TLAP has been “to help create a suicide prevention video that has been watched almost 30,000 times by our attorney community.”1

Terry Bentley Hill, a Dallas criminal defense attorney, is the chair of the TLAP committee this year. She has been active in TLAP for many years and shares her compelling story with audiences all over the state:

TLAP is more than a volunteer opportunity, it is personal. After I passed the Bar Exam, one of the first calls I made was to volunteer with TLAP. For years I watched my former husband, who was an exceptional attorney, succumb to the pressures of his job. After struggling with alcoholism for years, he took his life. He was isolated in his illness with nowhere to turn. A few years after his death, I attended an event where highly regarded attorneys talked about their sobriety and recovery and how TLAP changed their lives. I thought that if my former husband had known about TLAP and the support it provides struggling attorneys, perhaps things would have turned out different for him. I volunteer because I want to provide that lifeline to lawyers who need understanding, compassion, information, and help.

Terry Bentley Hill often talks about the power of speaking out and how it can change lives one at a time. She believes that lawyers sharing personal stories of how they overcame difficulties with the help of others encourages other lawyers to seek help:

When I speak on behalf of TLAP, I tell my story in a raw, honest, and transparent way. I talk about surviving suicide and share the lessons I have learned. After one of my presentations, a woman approached and said, “Terry, my dad died when I was 15 years old, and I always told people he died of a heart attack. After hearing your story, for the first time in 45 years I shared that he died by suicide.” I often encourage people to share their story because their story could be the key that unlocks someone else’s hell.

Another emerging area in lawyer wellness that TLAP is tackling is cognitive decline. According to Terry, this is one of TLAP’s big focuses, given the demographics of practicing attorneys in the state:

TLAP and its excellent staff stay abreast of the full spectrum of mental health issues, including cognitive decline in our aging attorneys. Over 16,000 attorneys over the age of 65 are practicing law in Texas. TLAP formulated a plan of action to help lawyers who need help in this area, including professional referrals and assistance in closing a lawyer’s practice.

In addition, succession planning is a major part of current State Bar President Laura Gibson’s initiatives for her bar year. As a committee member, I have had the opportunity to help mentor an overwhelmed lawyer back to functioning sta- tus. She was at a dark place where she did not see the light at the end of the tunnel. We walked through it step-by-step and met on a regular basis for several months. What she shared with me was that just by hearing my stories of what I went through so many years ago in my burnout period really helped her to not feel so alone. It gave her hope that she could turn things around with the support a mentor provides. It was great to see her get a handle on the situations in her life and begin to dig out of her problems proactively and in a healthy way.

Lawyers are human, just like everyone else. We have a great degree of responsibility to help our clients with a wide range of difficult and complex problems. With all of that negative energy and pressure coming our way each day, we have to find healthy ways to disperse it, or it will take over inside of us and cause dysfunction and disease. Being mindful and aware of our own personal health is a big step in the right direction for each lawyer to begin to incorporate healthy practices into their daily lives. The dedicated staff at TLAP has lawyer wellness at the top of their list, and Texas lawyers are the beneficiaries. I encourage every lawyer to check out the TLAP website at tlaphelps.org for great programs on lawyer wellness and useful resources for lawyers struggling with mental health issues. And please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or want to know more.

Melanie Bragg is the owner of Bragg Law, P.C., a general civil firm in Houston. She focuses on mediation, arbitration, probate, guardianships, and small business legal advice and believes in the power of preventative legal practice. She can be reached at Melanie@bragglawpc.com.

Endnotes

1. Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program, Just Ask: How We Must Stop Minding Our Own Business in the Legal World (Short Version), https://texasbarwo4m90g.vids.io/videos/4d9dd9b11b17ebc1c4/ final-short-version-tlap-suicide-prevention-video8-5-2021-1-mov (last visited Jan. 15, 2023).