It is widely recognized that, like practicing lawyers and other professionals, a significant percentage of law students suffer from problems involving anxiety and depression, addiction, other mental health problems, and problems relating to learning disabilities. For many law students, the “first responders” to these problems are the students’ professors. A student might behave strangely in class (perhaps displaying agitation or talking out of turn) or might be unaccountably absent. The professor might contact the student to find out what is going on and learn that the student is thinking about dropping out of school or even considering suicide. Another student in distress might make an appointment to speak with one of her professors to talk about why she can’t sleep or study effectively. During the meeting, the professor might learn that the student is beset by overwhelming anxiety and seldom sleeps more than two hours a night.
The goal of this program is to provide law professors with guidance on and an opportunity to discuss how to respond when students in distress ask for support and advice. Some student services staff possess professional training in counseling, but relatively few faculty members are trained counselors. Nevertheless, for some law professors, a significant part of their de facto job description is to provide support and advice to students about personal crises and mental health issues. These professors can provide critically important help to students in distress and can serve as models for their students as to how to assist colleagues who are facing complex personal problems. This program aspires to offer practical, ethical and legal guidance to professors who counsel students on these issues.
The program will bring together a panel that will include some law professors with extensive experience in advising students in distress, a university counseling center professional whose practice has included a large number of law students, and a lawyer from a university general counsel’s office or a law school administrator who is familiar with the regulatory and liability issues that may arise.
The program will open with introductory comments from the panel, offering an overview of the problem to be addressed and framing the issues to be discussed. The program will move expeditiously into an interactive discussion of a series of hypothetical problems. The panelists will present hypothetical situations in narrative form or through role plays and ask the audience to divide into small groups to play out their responses and to discuss the issues presented.
Some of the issues that this panel will explore include:
· Should law professors talk to students in distress, or should they just refer them to the professionals? Why might a law student prefer to confide in a professor than in a therapist, a law school administrator, a parent, a friend, or a religious advisor? Is professional training a prerequisite to such discussions?
· When and under what circumstances should a law professor agree to talk with a student in confidence, and when is such an agreement legally proper? If a law professor later receives a query from a state bar about a student the law professor has counseled, how should the professor respond?
· How can a law professor be most helpful in referring a student to a mental health professional? If the student is hesitant to seek counseling because of fear of having to disclose the counseling to bar admissions personnel, how best can a law professor advise a student?
· If a law professor is to meet with a student who seems seriously disturbed, what precautions are appropriate?
· When should a law professor report to the dean’s office on students who have exhibited serious mental health issues?
· What should law professors say to students in their classes about their availability to discuss issues that trouble their students?
· What should law professors know about federal and other law on student privacy and other issues that should inform their student guidance?
· How can law schools recognize such student counseling as a part of the performance evaluation of law professors?