Event Title: MCLE Roundtable – “The Prevalence and Destructive Effect of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse in the Legal Profession: The Lived Experience of a California Securities Attorney” presented by Cameron G. Stout
Event Type:
Location: 7:45 Breakfast Program 8 to 9:00 a.m. Sideman & Bancroft LLP* One Embarcadero Center Twenty-Second Floor San Francisco, CA 94111 *Please note that your admittance to the building may be delayed or denied if you are not on the name list at the Security Desk.
Presenter:
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Time: 12:00 AM
Description:
Substance abuse and/or mental illness are by far the leading causes of attorney malpractice, discipline and disbarment. The pressures of the legal profession, client expectations, and the modern demand that work product be delivered yesterday, can easily conspire to cause a lawyer to turn to drugs or alcohol. These stressors can also lead to varying types of mental illness, particularly major depression and severe anxiety.
The stigma and discrimination that surround these conditions frequently cause practitioners to deny their disease, or to refuse to seek treatment until it is too late. Recent studies have shown that attorney rates of depression and alcoholism can be as much as double those of the general population.n
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Cameron Stout, a nationally recognized securities litigator and am employment attorney, will lay out the relevant statistics, describe the risk factors of these competence issues, and will describe his own recent battle with major depression and his inspiring road to recovery.
Cameron graduated from Princeton University in 1980, and from USF Law School with honors in 1984. Cameron is actively involved in advocacy and mentoring in the mental health field.
Cameron has recently opened the Silicon Valley office of Wiand Guerra King where, in addition to his work as a litigator, he mediates disputes in a number of areas including securities, employment, mental health care and coverage, and family law.