Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To think most lawyers are alcoholics?

73 replies

sexonthebeach · 24/11/2011 19:05

I was having lunch with a lawyer friend earlier today and she had a periodical called the Law Society Gazette which reported that a survey indicates that at least 30% of lawyers are alcoholics. Can this be right? It's a bit worrying isn't it, as most of us need to consult them at some stage of our lives?

OP posts:

BeeBread · 27/11/2011 16:30

Some clients manage it. It's just the twats who don't.

Andrewofgg · 27/11/2011 16:31

True enough. But some of the twats probably don't thank anybody else.

wisebird · 27/11/2011 16:35

YABU 112% of the population don't understand statistics anyway.

He, he, I DID work for a very senior lawyer once though (a long long time ago, before mobile phones or even voicemessaging) and often had to cover for his being blind drunk stuck in a meeting. One time I answered the phone to his wife she asked me to write down the names of his DC and give him the piece of paper as "he might have forgotten them." Oooops.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 18:58

Mostly, people who admit to being alcoholics in surveys are recovering alcoholics, aren't they? I dislike the tone of the OP implying that it'd be 'worrying' to go to an alcoholic (no mention of whether recovering or not) ... what if that person had been sober years or decades? Would you still be judging them?

JamieComeHome · 27/11/2011 19:01

I'm 110% sure that the entire premise of this thread is flawed

SardineQueen · 27/11/2011 19:04

If the survey just asked how much they drank and how often then that might have been what lead to the figure. I doubt they asked "are you an alcoholic" and 30% said yes!

carabos · 27/11/2011 19:07

There's rather more to being an alcoholic than drinking more than the recommended number of units per week.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 19:11

I doubt they were asked how much they drank and 100% (or even 30%) gave an accurate response, too.

Besides which, there's the old arguments ...drinking a shedload a week doesn't automatically make you an alcoholic, nor does not drinking mean you're no longer an alcoholic.

mayorquimby · 27/11/2011 19:12

meh we don't get called to the bar to stay sober.

(not down-playing the seriousness of alcoholism, just don't know how to respond to a thread which asserts that 30% is a majority.)

SardineQueen · 27/11/2011 19:46

My point though is that many people have issues with alcohol and don't realise it.

This survey is unlikely to have asked "are you an alcoholic" and got a 30% agreement rate.
Therefore they must have used some other method. Like asked about drinking habits and drawn a conclusion from that.

My point was that lots of people on the thread seem to think that alcoholism is obvious and means that you will not be able to perform in your job. I was trying to make the point that that is not the case, that alcoholism does not necessarily = rolling drunk from dawn til dusk, and that you can't tell whether someone you work with is an alcoholic or not as easily as all that.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 19:51

I take your point there SQ.

I think we're talking about different aspects of the same prejudices/misconceptions about alcoholism? I'm trying to say to the OP (if she's still there) that it's a bit odd to be so worried about alcoholics being lawyers when plenty of alcoholics - especially long-term employed alcoholics - are in recovery.

mumblechum1 · 27/11/2011 19:56

I've been practicing for 25 years now and in all that time only worked with one alcoholic, the daughter of our senior partner who used to come to work with a water bottle full of vodka.

Not surprisingly she wasn't allowed to see clients or do any actual work, and if she wasn't the boss's daughter she would have been out on her ear.

It is a bloody stressful, thankless task though, or at least Family work is ime.

SardineQueen · 27/11/2011 19:56

Yes I think we are

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 19:59

Oh good - always reassuring to be agreeing with you.

SardineQueen · 27/11/2011 20:00

Is it?!

Andrewofgg · 27/11/2011 20:04

I've known one. Started tippling when his wife was given six months to live and beyond repair when she died three years later.

Just after he retired he married again and invited one of his former colleagues to the wedding. We all wanted to know who the hell marries an obvious alcoholic. The answer was, of course, another obvious alcoholic. I expect they were very happy together. And if not, well, at least by them marrying each other there were two unhappy people in the world not four!

MissBeehiving · 27/11/2011 20:06

LSG is dire. Probably a major factor in turning lawyers to drink. After all who wouldn't need a stiff apple martini before finding it useful or entertaining

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 20:06

Well, you generally speak sense and it is generally comforting to feel two of us may both be speaking sense ....

SardineQueen · 27/11/2011 20:07

Oh that's very nice LRD

I think we have very similar views about drinking TBH.

VeryHungryKatypillar · 27/11/2011 20:08

Is your friend an alcoholic?
YABU to think that MOST lawyers are alcohholic, YANBU to think that some might be, on the basis of that research.

I am a lawyer but am not an alcoholic. Does that help??

LRDtheFeministDragon · 27/11/2011 20:27

HereKittyKitty · 27/11/2011 21:16

I have met a few alcoholic lawyers (I am a solicitor) some functioning, some not, but the one I know the best is an alcoholic because of her childhood, not because of her job. But in the medium-sized private firm I worked in there were two older male partner alcohlics and this one woman, and possibly a few that were not known.

bringmesunshine2009 · 27/11/2011 22:07

Succubi ha! I know how you feel. When I can drnk a cup of without it being tepid I'll be happy.

Tea total. Don't know any alcoholic lawyers. What I will say is this. I see alcoholic (clients) the type who have the shakes and the odour that comes with long term alcohol abuse. Don't know any lawyers who could work like that.

I do think there are probably a lot of people, not just lawyers who have some form of dependency though. As in, glass to unwind, manage emotions, feel better, relax etc. thus a micro dependency that could escalate...

Flip

1 2 3