Lawyers must often deal with clients’ impairments
“We’re in a profound position to touch people’s lives in ways that go well beyond settling, negotiation and resolving conflict,” clinical psychologist Beth Wilner of Behavioral Psychology Associates, Skokie, told an ISBA Midyear Meeting seminar audience on Dec. 12.
“We can somehow take up another person’s burden or pain and help transform it,” she added. “The way in which an attorney would do this is quite different from a clinical psychologist’s, but nonetheless, an attorney can play a very powerful role in bringing about peace in an individual’s life.”
Wilner’s remarks came during the morning session of “Effectively and Ethically Managing Clients with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Problems.” (See the January Bar News, page 10, for a report on the afternoon session.)
The ISBA Law Ed seminar was conducted by the Committee on Women and the Law, with co-sponsorship by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.
The founder of Families in Transition, a psychology practice that assists divorcing family members, Wilner also is a co-founder of Dynamic Mediation Services, which offers mediation services in general commercial and real estate disputes.
She observed that lawyers will most likely encounter clients with some type of functional impairment. These include mood disorders, depression and bipolar; substance abuse, addictive behaviors such as gambling or food, and personality disorders that can be narcissistic and histrionic.
“An attorney doesn’t have to diagnose or treat the mental health or substance abuse issue,” Wilner said, “but the goal is to recognize that something’s not right with the client.
“This may impair your ability to effectively represent the client, or for the client to advocate on his or her behalf and to think rationally and reasonably through negotiations.”
Each of these disorders presents different challenges for an attorney, and each requires a different approach, she continued.
A narcissistic person, for example, has a core fear of inferiority, so one will maintain a feeling of superiority and consequently boast of superior knowledge. One may be self-righteous and treat professionals as peers.
Perhaps most-striking is their lack of empathy for other people. “I see this in the divorce cases I work with,” Wilner explained. “A true narcissistic personality won’t even have empathy for children. It’s quite sad and reveals a true void.”
She advised interacting with narcissistic personalities in ways that don’t make them feel inferior.
“Avoid direct criticism and challenges,” she said. “If there are genuine strengths and accomplishments in the individual that you can praise and reinforce, that will strengthen your working relationship.”
Wilner said it’s important for lawyers to know what resources are available to help functionally impaired clients, and to be prepared to direct them to those resources.
“The most frequent question I’m asked by attorneys is how to go about making that referral,” Wilner said. “It’s very difficult for an attorney to feel comfortable and know how to make a psychological or psychiatric referral associated with a client’s behavioral functioning.”
She suggested that an attorney “normalize, validate and empathize with the stress associated with conflict and litigation, but to also suggest to the client that there are resources available to help relieve stress.
“Highlight that the legal process can be more efficient and less costly when their issues are addressed or managed in counseling,” she said, “and express your concern in having the client functioning at his or her best during the legal process.”
Judge: Mental health issues are critical
Presiding Judge Patrick E. McGann of the County Division of the Cook County Circuit Court told the seminar audience that mental health issues come at a “critical time in our history in this area.”
He added that “some national statistics say that 60 percent of incarcerated people are mentally ill, and one in 10 people nationally has a mental illness which requires hospitalization.
“These individuals are coming to court, so it’s very important that we understand their dynamics and design court processes where lawyers and judges can communicate effectively about these issues.”
McGann said that lawyers should follow the American Bar Association’s suggestion that they continue representing an impaired client as best they can and as they would another client.
“However, if the lawyer reasonably believes that diminished capacity will place the client in physical or financial harm, the lawyer should take reasonable protective action. This includes consulting other professionals or seeking a guardian ad litem.”
This way, the lawyer best serves the client’s interests, said McGann, who doesn’t advocate automatic hospitalization when functional impairment issues arise. Yet he finds alternatives sorely lacking.
“In most communities, to my knowledge, no real network where people can get treatment on an outpatient basis exists,” he said. “Lawyers have to take an aggressive role in speaking out and finding networks and working with the courts to set up less restrictive treatment options for clients.”
Associate Judge Jesse G. Reyes, who sits in the Mortgage Foreclosure and Mechanic’s Lien Section, told of many litigants who come before him pro se.
“In civil cases, we seldom become aware of mental health or substance abuse issues,” he noted, “but sometimes we have a suspicion.”
Reyes added that these litigants can be referred to not-for-profit organizations for help with their problems. Having lawyers who are familiar with mental health and substance abuse problems throughout the system can only contribute to making the system better.