GENERAL INTEREST By 2012, “I had maxed out all of the doc-tors.” In his mind, he wasn’t an addict and was simply treating the pain, so, “I asked myself, how can I get more of these drugs?” He found a way to obtain more of the painkillers. “I was fl oored by how simple it was.” “It seemed like the right thing to do be-cause that’s how messed up I was in my head,” he said. “Denial is a feature of the disease.” A Moment of Grace It all crashed down in late 2012, and a family member suggested he call Lawyers Helping Lawyers. That’s when Leffl er stepped in and asked whether he wanted to go to treatment. Oliver checked into an inpatient facility for drug treatment. At that point, Oliver was sure his legal career was over. “I convinced myself I would be the best grocery store manager ever.” But Leffl er sat down in front of him at the center a couple of weeks later and told him, “’You need to start planning to return to work.’” “It was a moment of grace,” Oliver said. Oliver went back to work three months later. “I will forever be grateful for that, and for the second chance my employer offered to me.” He signed a contract with LHL, which he stayed on for an extra year “because I don’t want this to happen again.” He attends AA meetings. He calls what LHL did for him “a price-less gift. I needed them and I didn’t even know about them. I credit LHL with saving my life.” Saving Lives Others who have benefi tted from LHL feel the same way. What would have happened to Pandya without LHL? “I can’t imagine because I wouldn’t have gotten into recovery,” she said. There had al-ways been periods when she didn’t drink. But without recovery, she said she probably would have practiced law, relapsed, and ruined her professional career. “I know people on contracts, and LHL saved their licenses, saved their lives,” she said. Today, she is a criminal defense lawyer in Norfolk. Stan said, “I’m convinced I would have lost my law license without Lawyers Helping Lawyers.” 18 VIRGINIA LAWYER | August 2017 | Vol. 66 | GENERAL INTEREST FEATURES Stan signed a contract with LHL and was assigned a monitor. “For me, it was really transformative,” he said. When young lawyers enter the profession, “there is a huge transi-tion. You don’t know what you’re doing.” “The level of service a lawyer is obligated to p rovide is higher than in other jobs. . . If you’re a young lawyer, a lot of your illusions are going to be shattered.” Without LHL, “If I had been able to prac-tice law and was still drinking, I couldn’t have functioned. I’m really lucky.” Sisk’s road to recovery was long. By 2005, “Nothing else mattered but drugging and drinking….I was just on a tear.” Sisk was homeless and an occasional inmate at The Healing Place, a shelter he had once support-ed as a successful lawyer. He was also arrested for multiple offenses, including writing bad checks, and his law license had been revoked. “There is a level of insanity that can take over when a lawyer needs to convince himself it’s all right to keep drinking,” he said. A lawyer can turn the same skills he uses to per-suade courts and negotiate with adversaries against himself when alcoholism or addiction hi-jacks his mental facilities. In 2006, he went to drug court and then to meet with Leffl er. He signed a contract that included monitoring, meeting requirements, and drug screening. His sobriety date is June 17, 2007. By then, he was working for $10 an hour at a legal copy fi rm. By 2008, he was a paralegal, had an apartment, and was paying off his tax debt and making payments to catch up on his child support arears. George Hettrick recommended Sisk to Barbara Williams, who was then president of LHL. Sisk was hired as a confl icts analyst at McGuireWoods in 2011, and in 2012 applied to have his law license reinstated. He has since resumed the practice of law as a senior confl icts attorney at McGuireWoods. “I certainly would not have been read-mitted to the Virginia State Bar without active assistance from Lawyers Helping Lawyers. . . Without a contract and testing, there would be reason to doubt my sobriety. The support has been incredible.” This year, Sisk became the president of Lawyers Helping Lawyers. www.vsb.org