Breaking the habit

‘Firms only see what they want to see. I spanked £100,000 on cocaine in one year alone, and nobody noticed.’ This confession by one former City partner might come as a shock, but with drug use among lawyers on the up, and approximately one in six addicted to alcohol according to Law Care statistics, it is becoming a common sentiment.

Substance abuse has long been a characteristic of the legal profession. Contributing factors include high levels of stress, a large disposable income, immensely long hours and an exposure to both alcohol and hard drugs. It’s an explosive combination.

However, UK firms are often unwilling to address the issue, fearing reputational backlash and negative publicity. In doing so, they risk demonstrating a lack of support that can have disastrous consequences for their lawyers.

‘One eighth of my entire practice is made up of members of the legal profession,’ says Dr Neil Brener of The Priory Group. ‘Substance abuse is absolutely endemic.’ Whether it’s celebrating the end of a deal with a case of champagne, or fuelling an all-nighter with a line or two of cocaine, the use of alcohol, and increasingly of drugs, is part of the fabric of the legal profession. If approximately one in ten of the general population has misused substances at some time, a job where levels of stress and working hours are vastly higher than average invites abuse of this kind.

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