In her role as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers' Professional Liability, Karen Painter Randall, co-chair of Connell Foley’s Professional Liability practice and chair of the firm’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy practice, recently helped to produce the American Bar Association’s Spring 2018 National Legal Malpractice Conference. This three-day program, held April 25-27 in Washington, DC, offered in-depth programming on legal malpractice issues, developments and trending topics.
Of note, Karen was also involved in the ABA’s attorney wellness initiative and participated in the National Workshop on the Advancement of Attorney Well-Being in the Law Firm Setting, which was held at the Spring conference. The workshop was presented by the ABA Working Group to Advance Well-Being in the Legal Profession, Standing Committee on Lawyers Professional Liability, Center for Professional Responsibility and the Commission on Lawyers’ Assistance Programs. According to a Law360 article on the topic (“ABA To Mull Model 'Wellness' Policy For Struggling Attys”), “The jump-off point for the discussion about lawyer wellness was a pair of alarming studies showing the legal profession’s outsized problems with substance abuse and mental health.” As a result, the ABA, as well as representatives from the National Organization of Bar Counsel and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, have created a national task force on lawyer well-being. The goal is to promote a model law firm policy, aimed at promoting lawyer well-being, which firms could adopt or modify as appropriate and “would serve as a roadmap for partnerships struggling with the many difficult issues surrounding lawyers suffering from addiction or depression.” For more information, please see http://lawyerwellbeing.net/
