SSF Legal Lunchbox: Identifying and Working with Impaired Clients

 Identifying and Working with Impaired Clients –  presented by Bryan R. Welch

Effective communication with clients who experience mental health stresses during representation is often frustrating and demanding.  Symptoms of anxiety, depression and substance misuse can impair a client’s ability to process information and participate in their case.  Sometimes these symptoms are obvious – often they are more subtle.  This CLE will help lawyers recognize, and more effectively communicate with, clients who experience mental health stresses during representation.

1 Access to Justice  CLE Credit will be applied for.

 Bryan R. Welch, J.D., CADC I, is an Attorney Counselor with the Oregon Attorney Assistance Program.  He is a graduate of Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon (JD 2003), and is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Prior to joining the OAAP staff in 2015, he was in the private practice of law for twelve years, primarily in family law and family mediation. In addition to his work at the OAAP, Mr. Welch’s experience includes providing drug and alcohol counseling services for a court-mandated DUII treatment program and for a local non-profit helping people impacted by homelessness, poverty and addiction. Mr. Welch has been in recovery since 2001, and has been actively involved in the recovery community, including the OAAP, since that time.  He can be reached at (503) 226-1057 ext. 19, or  [email protected].