Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (LCL) of Massachusetts, like the lawyer assistance programs in all 50 states, is in many ways based on the model of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which grew out of the early growth of the AA movement and initially focused almost entirely on alcoholism. The first official EAP seems to have been developed by the Kemper insurance company in 1962. Over the years, employee and lawyer assistance programs have greatly expanded their scope to include a wide range of human issues including emotional, family, and occupational sources of distress, and in many cases have been credited with saving the careers of people who would otherwise have lost their jobs.
Massachusetts lawyers who work in large firms or for other kinds of large corporations often have an employee assistance program available to them. If in need of help, then, these lawyers have a choice as to whether to seek the services of their employers’ EAP or of LCL (which is free to them, supported by a small portion of annual licensing fees). Here are some factors that might go into making that choice.
Jeff Fortgang, PhD
