NCLAP Sidebar

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.
—Caroline Myss

Message from the Director

A quick Mindfulness Moment is better for your emotional resilience (and your waistline) than a candy bar and cup of coffee on the run. Read More


A Work in Progress: Reflections of the Adult Child of an Alcoholic

Lawyers are fixers by nature. For lawyers who grew up with alcoholic parent(s), this drive to fix others is strong and part of the residual effect of having grown up as they did. It can take a lifetime to realize we cannot fix our family or our clients. Read More


Sobriety is Contagious

Early in recovery, if given a polygraph test, this lawyer’s answer to whether he was an alcoholic would have been a resounding NO and he would have passed the test with flying colors. But somehow he stuck around recovery rooms and people in recovery because he found sobriety was contagious. Read More


Practice Perspectives

This perfectionist lawyer reports that asking, “How important is it?” has transformed the once pressure-cooker environment in the workplace. Read More


Mindful Moment

Want more positivity in your life? This simple 15-second exercise can help re-train your brain, shifting focus away from our inherent and professionally-reinforced “negativity bias.” Read More


ABA's National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being Publishes Landmark Report

On the heels of the well-publicized, national landmark ABA Hazelden study conducted in 2015, the ABA created a National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being comprised of Conference of Chief Justices, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, and Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. The Task Force released a comprehensive report, The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change, aimed at addressing the problems faced by the profession. The report includes dozens of recommendations for stakeholder groups from law schools, to regulators, to law firms. It represents the most ambitious roadmap yet related to promoting the well-being of lawyers. The hope is that implementation of the recommendations will lead to a cultural shift within the profession.

Read Press Release

Read Report


NY Times Article Spurs Action in NC

This compelling article featured on the cover of the NY Times Business Section lead to a dozen large firms’ general counsel and managing partners scheduling to meet with LAP staff mid-September to discuss issues of lawyers’ mental health including strategies for prevention, early detection, and action when an issue surfaces. Read Article


Something to Consider

Fighting The Instrument
by Mark Nepo

Often the instruments of change
are not kind or just
and the hardest openness
of all might be
to embrace the change
while not wasting your heart
fighting the instrument.

The storm is not as important
as the path it opens.
The mistreatment in one life
never as crucial as the clearing
it makes in your heart.

This is very difficult to accept.
The hammer or cruel one
is always short-lived
compared to the jewel
in the center of the stone.

Reprinted with permission by Mark Nepo.

Upcoming Events - LAP Related

Nov. 3-5, 2017
LAP November Conference
Asheville, NC
(online registration will be sent to LAP volunteers mid-September)

Feb. 23, 2018
Minority Outreach Conference
Durham, NC
(online registration will be sent early January)

Upcoming Events - Community Based
(not LAP sponsored; a clearing house of information for recovery related events around the state)

Renewal Center of the South
Current Retreat Schedule

Submissions to the Sidebar are Welcome

See guidelines for submissions

Annual Report

View the 2015-2016 Annual Report
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