Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48, relieving official members of the Nashville Bar Association Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee of their obligation to report ethical violations discovered while helping attorneys with chemical dependency, is expanded to include all participants; and, to include participants of programs sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association, the Memphis-Shelby County Bar Association and the Knoxville Bar Association.
Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48 issued by the Board on May 23, 1983 relieved official members of the Nashville Bar Association Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee of their obligation to report ethical violations discovered while attempting to help attorneys with chemical dependency. The program has now completed its fourth year of operation and has been very successful. More than ten attorneys have sought and received help through the program. The Nashville program has become a pilot program for other organized Bar groups.
Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48 states, in part:
... only the members of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee ... officially elected by the Board of the Nashville Bar Association are relieved from their Canon 1 obligation to report ethical violations which come to their attention from any source in connection with, and only during the time involved, and for the limited purpose of carrying out their stated obligation to attempt to help attorneys with alcohol or drug abuse problems.
The Nashville Bar Association, and other Bar groups, are interested in formulating committees with memberships consisting of lawyers knowledgeable about chemical dependency and its treatment, including recovering lawyers and other lawyers interested in the program goals. These members may become involved in the program in connection with the education process, in identifying lawyers who may be chemically dependent, in verifying a lawyer's chemical dependence, in confronting identified lawyers about their chemical dependency, in referral of lawyers for treatment, and in supporting the rehabilitation of lawyers who are chemically dependent.
During the confrontation process, a team composed of two or more lawyers appropriately trained for intervention confrontation to confront the lawyer with the facts as known and will encourage the impaired lawyer to obtain help. The confrontation team will point out how dependency may be affecting the lawyer's professional activities and relationships. Treatment alternatives will be discussed.
The Nashville Bar Association has requested that Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48 be expanded to provide immunity for all participants of the program from their obligation to report ethical violations discovered while engaged in the program. Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48, therefore, is expanded to include all Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee members, and all participants of the program who may volunteer their services even though not officially elected by the Board of the respective approved bar organizations. They are immune from their obligation to report ethical violations discovered while engaged in the program.
This opinion further expands the previous ethics opinion to include the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committees and participants of programs sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association, the Memphis and Shelby County Bar Association and the Knoxville Bar Association.
This 10th day of June, 1987.
ETHICS COMMITTEE:
W. J. Flippin
Henry H. Hancock
Edwin C. Townsend
APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE BOARD
2024-02