Circuit Court Judge Robert L. Childers of Memphis has been appointed chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs (CoLAP), which provides help for legal professionals and law school students with addiction, mental health and other issues that affect their ability to practice law.
ABA President Bill Neucom tapped Childers to lead the commission. Childers has served on the commission or its advisory commission since 2000 and has chaired the Law School Assistance Committee. He also was chair of the Judicial Assistance Committee for CoLAP.
“Judge Childers has brought admirable determination and dedication to the project to develop a rule fostering conditional admission to practice law,” said Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. “His vision and his commitment to consensus-building will serve the commission and the ABA as he assumes his new role. I look forward to working with Judge Childers in his new capacity.”
Childers said the ABA first formed a commission to assist attorneys with addiction and mental health problems in 1988. Since then, programs modeled on the ABA commission have been created in all 50 states.
He serves on and was an original member of the commission for the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP), created by the state Supreme Court in 1999. TLAP provides consultation, assessment, referral, intervention and other services for lawyers, judges, bar applicants and law students with issues such as substance abuse, stress, family problems, depression, gambling and eating disorders.
“Until 1988 when the ABA took the lead, lawyers with those types of problems were on their own,” Childers said. “Many of them failed personally, professionally and they failed their clients. Thousands of legal professionals nationwide are productive and responsible today because of help they have received from the commission and state programs, such as TLAP.”
CoLap priorities, established by the ABA include education concerning addiction, depression and mental health problems; maintaining a clearinghouse on lawyer assistance programs; and collecting state rules and court decisions on confidentiality and immunity.