LISA OSTROM
<Contributor>
Mental health law and related personal or client-centred mental health issues will affect every single lawyer practicing in every field (even corporate) throughout the course of his or her career. After five years of working as a nurse in mental health, I have come to realize the extent to which mental health issues pervade one’s daily life in any career in which one has regular contact with people who are under stress or strain, as I’m sure any Osgoode professor can attest. Conveniently, lawyers also tend to deal with people who are going through some of the most difficult life events imaginable, including death, divorce, or a messy merger. Lawyers aren’t normally needed when things are going well in our clients’ lives, which is why I have adapted the list of the three things I’ve learned from my experiences in emergency psychiatry for the legal profession.
1. People are funny
The emotional (and possibly financial) pressure of legal proceedings can make people act in ways they wouldn’t normally, and therefore, this provision applies to all clients, and to all lawyers themselves.
Rule 2.02 of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Rules of Professional Conduct maintains that lawyers must be honest and candid with clients. What happens in cases where a client is clearly not making decisions from a place of optimal mental health? Or where clients are needlessly dragging out disputes because of an irrational desire for revenge or to satisfy an unhealthy desire to be “right” at all costs? From a practical perspective, speaking out in these types of situations, although ethical, may result in the client firing you, and finding another, more opportunistic lawyer. Given the current state of the legal job market, it may be phenomenally difficult to intervene when clients are acting funny.
Lawyers are certainly not immune to the effects of stress, pressure, and overwork. Are you aware of how you respond to stress? Have you put into place effective coping mechanisms that do not involve drugs or alcohol that will be feasible when you have little free time? Lawyers have stratospheric rates of alcohol and drug addiction in comparison with the general population, approaching 25% in some legal sectors.
Similarly, have you thought about how you’re going to respond when a senior associate or a partner starts acting in an abusive manner toward you? Again, it may be challenging, if not impossible, to intervene when your superiors are acting funny. However, it may help to understand that people who are acting funny may be dealing with personal and professional issues beyond anything you can imagine, and outbursts may have little or nothing to do with anything you’ve done.
2. Love is strange
As Beyoncé, and any family, immigration, criminal, estates, or litigation lawyer will tell you, love makes people do crazy things sometimes, particularly in cases where a formerly loving relationship has soured.
I can imagine that it is very difficult for lawyers working in these fields of practice to determine what qualify as legitimate client concerns, and what actions are being motivated primarily by emotion or hurt feelings. Again, given that lawyers have a duty to be candid with clients at all times, in cases where it appears that clients are allowing feelings of love, lust, or a lack thereof, to dictate their actions, at what point should the lawyer intervene, or act as the voice of reason? At any rate, it is important to consider the extent to which feelings of intense love or hate can determine an individual’s state of mind, even though lawyers are certainly not psychotherapists. If a soured relationship or wounded feelings can be the catalyst that prompts an individual to attempt suicide, it is not outlandish to think that the same act could be an impetus to initiate legal action.
3. Don’t do crack
Now, this little tidbit doesn’t apply to legal practice per se, but should be considered a general life rule. In the words of the immortal Whitney Houston, “crack is wack.” For further clarity, UrbanDictionary defines “wack” as “lame, sorry ass, ain’t even legit.” So, don’t do crack. It’s a terrible, life-ruining drug.
Lisa Ostrom, RN MN, is a 2L at Osgoode. She doesn’t do crack. She also gives credit to Dr. Mara Goldstein MD CM FRCPC for the initial development of the list of three.