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Guidelines for Article Submissions

Thank you for your interest in writing for Sidebar, the electronic newsletter of the NC Lawyer Assistance Program. Each issue contains at least three articles, one each about substance abuse and mental health, and a third shorter article called “practice perspectives.” Feel free to submit an article in any category, with the following guidelines:

Articles about mental health or substance abuse issues should be no more than 1,500 words, and shorter articles of 1,000 words or fewer are preferred. Articles may be personal stories or testimonies, but need not be. Some writers choose to tell an abbreviated version of their entire recovery experience, others focus on a particular incident. Articles about a particular topic are also welcome. We ask that you remember our mission is to reach everyone in our profession who may need help; in that spirit we ask you to avoid offensive language or issues that are unrelated to mental health and recovery or topics that may be political, sectarian, or otherwise controversial.

Submissions for our “practice perspectives” series should be short, no more than 300 words. These pieces should be concrete examples of how your law practice has changed as a result of your improved mental health or recovery. We hope that these will provide workable solutions to other lawyers who may be struggling with a similar problem. These should be based upon your actual experience, not what you think might work or what you heard someone else did. An example might be how you used a meditation technique to deal with a difficult client or opposing counsel.

All articles will be published anonymously and may be edited by LAP volunteers or staff. Each article will also need a title and a one-sentence description. Feel free to suggest titles and descriptions, or the publications committee or LAP staff will suggest one. There is no limit on how many articles you may submit, but our goal is to have as many different authors as possible to reflect our diverse experience.

Neither the Sidebar nor any organization associated with the Sidebar, including but not limited to the North Carolina State Bar and/or its Lawyer Assistance Program, will provide compensation for submitted articles. Once an author submits an article to the Sidebar, the Sidebar has all rights to the article. Authors who submit an article attest that the material is all their own, and no part of the article comes from another source, copyrighted or otherwise, unless properly cited with permission to use the content.

We look forward to receiving your submission. Thank you for your interest.

Please submit all articles to the LAP Director.