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Criminal defense attorney Jack Morgan was on his way up, earning a reputation as a courtroom workhorse who often took on tough cases involving public officials.
Only those close to the successful lawyer, who graduated at the top of his University of Utah law school class, knew he also suffered from the highs and lows of bipolar disorder. In August, Morgan took his own life at age 41.
"We knew that Jack had some things going on," said law partner Greg Skordas. "But we loved him and it wasn't like we worried about him, because he had handled it so well in the past. He was one of the finest lawyers I have ever worked with."
Morgan was a leader in Lawyers Helping Lawyers, or LHL, created in 2003 to pair volunteer attorneys with colleagues struggling with addictions or mental health issues. LHL arranges treatment and, when needed, closes a troubled lawyer's office or temporarily takes pending cases.
The death drew new volunteers to LHL. Yet next month, the Utah State Bar will cut most of its funding. Instead, it will send lawyers in need to counselors at an Employee Assistance Program, or EAP. The volunteers have been offered $25,000 in funding to continue in a narrower role.
LHL Executive Director Rich Uday fears the EAP approach will mean fewer lawyers seek help, citing American Bar Association research backing peer help groups.
''What really works with lawyers is having the peer assistance,'' Uday said. "Many of these lawyers, we have to tell them, 'Hey, you're not fooling anybody.' "
Problems become public: Attorney Stephen Owens, a former classmate of Morgan's, chaired the bar committee that recommended an EAP.
"We felt if [lawyers] were only going to make one call, it really ought to be to a mental health professional, and then bring in the peer things if they want it," he said.
The bar hopes the EAP model, which includes a capped number of visits to a counselor, will boost the numbers of attorneys that get help, Owens said. The service will include a 24-hour, toll-free phone number, and counselors will have at least a master's degree.
Although Lawyers Helping Lawyers is relatively new, awareness has increased as cases involving prominent judges and attorneys have become public through news stories and discussed in the legal community.
Last year, reports to police of a suicide attempt by 3rd District Judge Stephen Henriod prompted discussions about his fitness for duty. While recommending a reprimand for Shawn T. Farris, a St. George attorney who had served as a small claims court judge, investigators for the Judicial Conduct Commission noted he was dealing with the death of a sibling and the terminal illness of his mother.
In 2003, 3rd District Judge Ray Harding Jr. pleaded guilty to drug charges, losing his job and eventually his license to practice law. His probation included working for LHL. All three men declined to be interviewed.
'A tendency to ignore': Salt Lake City psychologist Robin Roberts, who has been practicing for 24 years, has treated attorneys and counts several among her family: her husband, daughter, in-laws.
''There tends to be among lawyers a tendency to ignore," she said, "an attitude that 'Yeah I can't concentrate, I can't sleep, I don't think clearly as I used to, but I'm going to just force myself to do those things.' Those are the symptoms of depression, which in turn makes depression worse."
Roberts said she considers a group such as LHL more "user-friendly" for attorneys than an EAP. LHL's Uday agrees.
"Lawyers tend to think they are special enough that they need someone of at least equal experience from an educational perspective to talk to," said Uday.
In Colorado, Uday argued, a peer-assistance program is more popular than the EAP paid for by the state bar. But Utah State Bar President David Bird said he is optimistic about the results Utah might see.
"It is still a question how most lawyers will react," he said.
LHL Board member Brook Millard said he is a skeptic.
Took the tough cases: In a conversation last year, Morgan invited Millard to volunteer with LHL. In September, after Morgan's death, Millard joined the board of directors.
Millard said he has watched his own brother struggle for decades with addiction and alcoholism. But he had no idea Morgan was bipolar.
"On the surface you wouldn't see any chinks in his armor, but obviously he had the demon living in his mind and it took him far too early," Millard said.
In recent years, Morgan had worked on several high-profile cases. He defended former Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman, acquitted of charges that she misused public funds. Morgan represented a Granite School District police officer charged with aggravated assault, and Robert Steven Hatch, who was found guilty of the shotgun murder of his estranged wife.
He took on the tough cases because he loved the work, Skordas said.
"He could have gone to any big firm, worked on Wall Street," said Skordas. "But he truly followed his heart, he chose to do this kind of practice because he loved it."
Now the specifics of LHL's future are uncertain, including whether it will keep its office space on Salt Lake City's Main Street. Its budget from the bar had been $120,000. Uday will leave his position as LHL executive director in March, and he will donate the last two months of his salary to help cover the reduced funding.
"Our ambition is to stay alive and seek some additional funding," said LHL board chairman attorney Roger Cutler.
In an article for the Utah State Bar Journal written the summer before his death, Morgan urged his colleagues to support Lawyers Helping Lawyers.
"As attorneys, we are not immune from mental illness and addiction," Morgan wrote. "We are not, to use a trite expression, 'above the law.' And yet, because we expect perfection from ourselves and our colleagues, we are reluctant to acknowledge our susceptibility to these human afflictions." He added: "We have a duty to ourselves, our colleagues and our profession to address these issues.''
How many call Lawyers Helping Lawyers?
Utah Lawyers Helping Lawyers (LHL) provides confidential help to Utah State Bar members whose professional performance is or might be impaired because of mental illness, emotional distress, substance abuse or another disabling condition or circumstance. Calls made to LHL by attorneys or others concerned about them:
l 39 in 2003
l 54 in 2004
l 78 in 2005