Lawyers, mental illness, admission and misconduct

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 2004 in Australia, there has been a significant amount of interest in the issues of lawyers and mental illness. As a result there is now a substantial body of literature that examines legal education and its links to lawyer distress. In the profession, there has been a growing awareness of lawyer mental illness and the growth of professional development and lawyer support. Less attention, however has been paid to the links between mental illness and misconduct and the ways in which mental illness is treated in disciplinary proceedings. This article seeks to address this gap by examining cases of disciplinary misconduct over the past 10 years in which mental illness is raised as a causal or a contributing factor. We have found that the law relating to mental illness and misconduct is still developing. Our analysis finds that courts and tribunals are, overall, sensitive to lawyer mental illness and that they are achieving an appropriate balance between the rights of the lawyer and protecting those of the public and the reputation of the legal profession. The paper will draw out the principles currently being used by the courts to assess the effects and implications of a lawyer’s mental illness on claims of misconduct.