Legal Remedies : The Program: An aggressive new State Bar campaign targets the substance abuse problem.

A new breed of lawyer has emerged in the 1990s. They’re as bright, well-educated, tough, sophisticated and relatively affluent as lawyers always have been.

But some of them also are alcoholics or drug abusers. To feed their habits, these addicted lawyers often rip off clients with inferior service. They take money for work they never provide. They have been known to take money directly from clients’ liquid assets.

As many as one in seven California lawyers has a serious substance abuse problem, according to Alan Rothenberg, president of the California State Bar. In a court system clogged with drug cases, many of the accused are prosecuted or defended by lawyers in the grip of their own addictions.

Although other professions have similar problems, the problem in law has grown so severe that the State Bar--the quasi-governmental agency responsible for licensing and disciplining the state’s 122,000 lawyers--has “decided to meet the issue head-on,” Rothenberg said. Confronted with statistics that showed that roughly half the 5,000 legal misconduct cases the Bar investigated each year were linked to substance abuse, “we felt that it would be irresponsible to sweep it under the rug,” he added.

Times staff writer David Haldane asks: Who are the lawyers with drug or alcohol problems? Who are their victims? And what is the State Bar trying to do about this problem?

Alan Rothenberg wants the problem of lawyers who abuse drugs or alcohol to be a top priority of the State Bar of California.

The State Bar president already has created a task force to study the issue. He has launched an aggressive publicity campaign to combat the problem. And he has initiated programs to help lawyers stay sober.

“We had to do a lot of soul-searching,” Rothenberg said. “Lawyers suffer from enough public image problems as it is. But we’re not embarrassed to talk about this; we feel that we’re doing a public service.”

The State Bar, a group to which all California lawyers must belong, launched its latest crackdown after getting a sharp, internal message that it was needed.

Responding three years ago to public criticisms that its policing of lawyer conduct was insufficient, the State Bar set up a system devoted to disciplining misbehaving members of the legal profession, Rothenberg said. An astounding 50% of the misconduct cases handled each year--more than 2,500 cases last year--involved lawyers’ substance abuses, he added.

“When we saw the impact (of drug and alcohol problems) on discipline,” he said, “we were convinced that it was a subject that had to be dealt with.”

Last year, after becoming State Bar president, Rothenberg asked 15 experts--representing a range of disciplines related to the law and substance abuse--to offer recommendations, which the task force is expected to publish this summer. “We are attacking the problem on a variety of levels,” said Robert Talcott, a lawyer, task force chairman and president of the Los Angeles Police Commission. “The first is to bring the issue out of the closet. . . .”

Besides publicizing the issue in professional journals, the task force plans to discuss drug and substance abuse in letters circulated among thousands in the profession, including lawyers, legal secretaries, clerks, judges and family members. The letters will alert them to substance abuse symptoms and urge them to seek help.

Rothenberg says he even contacted the producers of the TV series “L.A. Law” to encourage them to air an episode next season about lawyers and drug and alcohol abuse.

The task force has sought to publicize a toll-free number--(800) 225-8451--that gives lawyers anonymous referrals to substance abuse programs in their area.

The group, Talcott said, also has recommended that:

* Lawyers and law students receive mandatory education about substance abuse problems.

* Health care insurance for lawyers should be expanded to cover treatment programs for drug and alcohol programs.

* Local Bar associations and law firms coordinate counseling and treatment programs.

* The legal community develop programs to handle troubled lawyers’ practices while they undergo substance abuse treatment.

While the legal community seems to have welcomed the State Bar attention to the issue, some lawyers say the group has held to a double standard, showing more leniency toward alcoholics versus those who use cocaine or other drugs.

That isn’t the key issue, Rothenberg said. The State Bar, he said, views substance abuse as a disease that must be handled before it affects a lawyer’s performance; lawyers who have damaged a client’s interests, whatever the reason, will be dealt with.

“Lawyers have to make cool, objective decisions, and if they’re suffering from substance abuse, that’s got to be hard,” he said. “We want to reverse the direction.”