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    Providing assistance with character and fitness issues and the stressful demands of law school.
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    Offering assistance for lawyers with impaired family members or family members of impaired lawyers.
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NC LAP Annual Conference


Each November, the Lawyer Assistance Program hosts an annual conference and training program for our active volunteers, who are selected to serve by the LAP director or clinical staff and appointed to the committee by the State Bar president. We typically alternate between the beach and the mountains for our venue each year.

Details for 2024: November 1-3, 2024 at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville. Registration information will be emailed to participants in September. 

Minority Outreach Conference

For historically based sociological reasons that stretch far beyond our time or the legal profession, the LAP has been and remains underutilized by African American attorneys in NC. In contrast to their white peers and other minority attorneys, African American attorneys are less likely to ask for assistance or admit any form of impairment.

As the diversity of our bar membership increases, we want to ensure that all our bar members have equal access to and knowledge of our program, without fear of stigma or consequences to one’s career. In an effort to increase participation by the African American Bar, the LAP began hosting an annual Minority Outreach Conference CLE event in 2010. The Minority Outreach Conference brings together African American leaders within the NC bar as well as psychologists and mental health professionals. Lawyers and speakers discuss real issues and real solutions. The personal sharing and transparency of our speakers sets an interpersonal tone of honesty and openness. The event fills to capacity every year and many lawyers express that this annual conference provides them with a sense of connection to other lawyers and to our shared humanity, giving them a shot of emotional resilience to carry them through another year of law practice.

The conference is typically held in late February in a central location within the state, usually the triangle area.

Details for 2024: Friday, February 23, 2024 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh. Brochure and registration (now open).

Step Study Weekend


A committee of LAP volunteers organizes and hosts an annual step study weekend. There has been enthusiasm and support for combining our efforts on both the addiction and mental health sides of the aisle. We have found we all have more in common than we have differences.  We all have struggled with the human condition – some of us drank or did drugs, some got depressed, some became codependent, some got angry or anxious, some tried for more power, money, prestige, or control… some of us did all of that or none of that…but once we get past whatever the symptom was that brought each of us to LAP, we are all learning how to “Live in the Solution” and be ever-more “Happy, Joyous and Free.”

There is no question that the 12-steps are the most effective tool for long-term recovery for folks with alcohol or drug problems and their family members. We have found at LAP that the steps also offer tremendous benefit for those lawyers working on issues like depression, anxiety, codependency, workaholism, ADD, and other issues. Their lives have been transformed by the steps as well. Why? Because the steps offer a framework for living that shifts our typical perspective shaped by the human condition.

Our step study weekend offers recovering lawyers an opportunity to participate in reflective step based exercises in a relaxed and intimate setting with peers on the path. The weekend is facilitated by experienced workshop and retreat leaders with years of step-based recovery. The weekend is usually held in early to mid-April.

For 2020 we are pressing pause. As of September 2020, due to COVID-19, it is unclear whether we will hold the April 2021 event. Registration invitations are emailed to LAP volunteers and select clients. This event does not qualify for CLE credit and is not open to the public or lawyers who are not currently involved with LAP as volunteers or clients.

Cost includes 2 nights lodging and 5 meals (dinner Friday through breakfast Sunday).

Spouses are welcome.

Local Peer Support Group Meetings


The LAP holds regular lawyer peer support meetings across the state. Lawyers come together to share experience, strength and hope with each other as to how they have recovered and how they use the tools of recovery in their daily lives and law practices. Deep and long lasting friendships are forged at these meetings where the lawyer façade is let down, making way for honest sharing about life and our reactions to it. Attendance is by invitation only after pre-screening by LAP staff to determine suitability. Many meetings are monthly lunch meetings, while Charlotte and Raleigh each have an evening meeting that meets once a week.

Due to COVID-19, we are holding all groups via Zoom. Due to the convenience of Zoom, some meetings are now meeting weekly instead of monthly.

Charlotte Weekly Support Group: Every Monday at 5:30 pm

Charlotte Lunch: 2nd Friday every month

Durham/Chapel Hill Lunch: Meeting weekly during COVID, usually on Thursday or Friday

Fayetteville/Sandhill Lunch:  Meetings paused

Greensboro Triad Mental Health Lunch: 1st Friday every month

Greensboro Triad AA Meeting: 2nd and 4th Wednesday every month

Greenville Lunch: 2nd Thursday every month

Raleigh Lunch: Meeting paused due to increased participation at the weekly meeting

Raleigh Weekly Support Group:  Weekly, every Monday (last names A-K) and every Tuesday (last names L-Z) from 12:30-1:30

Wilmington Lunch: Weekly, every Wednesday

Winston-Salem Lunch: 3rd Friday every month