http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/825.html

Pages 4 & 8 of http://www.palawweekly.com/plw_net/supplements/pdfs/yl_0905_web.pdf

Best wishes on all your endeavors.

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Dear Strawberrylawgrl,

I'm a 42 y.o. lawyer diagnosed seven months ago, and I'll tell you that, yes, you absolutely CAN be a lawyer with ADD. In fact you can even thrive, though there will be extra challenges that you'll have to overcome. (I would be interested in hearing about what has specifically worked for other late-diagnosed lawyers because I am struggling with my one big bugaboo, which is deadlines.)

Just to give you encouragement, Strawberrylawgrl, here's what I was able to accomplish before I was ever diagnosed. I was on a law journal, clerked for a state supreme court justice (actually the chief justice), accomplished many things as a public interest lawyer before joining a private law firm, at which I stayed, and thrived, becoming a partner while still in my 30s. I've also had public "recognition," if you will, such as being voted a "Superlawyer" and among the top 25 lawyers in my state in my practice area. So it can happen, even when you have "issues" (as I always have) with some things, in my case, timeliness.

Here are a few tips. First, make sure that whatever area of practice you go into is one that inherently draws your attention. That doesn't mean that every aspect of what you do floats your boat, but it means that more than 50% of the time you're actually thrilled to be doing what you're doing. As a mentor of mine told me, once: when he was made a partner in his firm, he told all of his new partners that the joke was on them, because he would have done what he got to do there for free. You have to feel that way or it won't work for you.

Second, your spouse/significant other and assistants need to be on board, particularly your spouse/significant other. If you're still unattached, I'd hunt down a partner that will accept the diagnosis and educate himself or herself about it. I struggled for many years because my hubby could not understand why I needed to have the house immaculate all the time (it's too distracting for me when it isn't). Accepting the diagnosis and working with it has made a huge difference for us. Your assistant also has to be on board because he or she will have to accept a certain level of chaos with you. I've found that my assistant is very motivated to "help" me, because I'm kind and supportive with her, and she actually seems to kind of enjoy having the extra responsibility, although the chaotic parts (particularly last-minute rushes) wear her down at times. She watches for early meetings, teleconferences, or hearings and calls me to remind me about them, even sometimes from her home at 7:00 am. She also double checks letters or other things for stupid errors, like naming the wrong client. You need another pair of eyes on these kinds of things, so find an assistant who is willing and able to do that, and treat him or her like the fabulous professional asset that he or she is. Remember birthdays, buy gifts at appropriate times, give thank yous for beyond-the-call-of-duty work, and always support him or her with his or her supervisor. You'll reap an enormous benefit from doing that.

The third thing is that you'll need to be honest with yourself about what you're good at, and what you're not. And what you're good at will coincide with what most floats your boat. If you can't juggle assignments and multitask, you're not likely to make it as a trial lawyer. If, on the other hand, you'd rather cut off your arm than sit and read caselaw all day, then you're not likely to make a good appellate lawyer. Go with your strengths. If you're talented, your colleagues and/or superiors may encourage you to branch out, thinking that you'd probably be good at other things, but as soon as you find yourself becoming disinterested, recognize that as a red flag and avoid that kind of practice. Being bored will tube your career. You have to love it more than most people do to sustain it. "The law is a jealous mistress," and all that.

The last bit of advice that I would give is that you should try medication if you have not already. It's not a panacea. For me, it helps, but it isn't a cure-all. I still have timeliness issues. I need to develop a routine that works. Had I started this back in elementary school, I'm sure I'd be fine now. As it is, I'm starting rather late in life, after having developed several coping skills on my own, some good, some not as good.

Ok, so here's my question for any other lawyers further down this path than me: do you use hyperfocus to write? I do, and I can't really write without it. Writing is my "thing" if you will, and I use the hyperfocus to "see" a brief, then I write in a stretch (as long as 60 hours with only a couple hours of sleep and very little food). Do any of you do the same thing, and if so, have you discovered a way to turn on a hyperfocus early enough to get drafts done in advance of a deadline?

Hyperfocusqueen

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That is a very encouraging story. I wish mine were the same.

I am an experienced attorney in my early forties and have had a number of ups and downs in my career as a result of my ADD I am still searching for ways to compensate. I tend to wait until the last minute to turn out briefs or prepare for depositions etc. It takes a filing date or some other uber-deadline to force me to lock in and turn out the work product. When I do, the product is top notch but getting to that point and keeping my focus is a killer.

I find I am at my best when under a time crunch. In fact, I thrive under that pressure but it tends to drive the people around me crazy. It can also be pretty exhausting. Without the impending doom of a court-deadline, I tend to flounder and slip up on the simple things (time entry, reports, and the other mundane tasks). In the end, I am either hyper-focused or comatose, I either work 13 hours a day for two weeks on a project and churn out stellar work-product or I accomplish very little.

I love it when I am on and under the "gun" but there's an awful lot of down time in between. The inconsistencies drive me and my colleagues nuts. I would love to find a way to "even out" and am looking into hiring a coach and exploring the idea of an executive assistant to help me get organized.

I am going through a "down time" in my career and trying to find ways to reinvent myself. My ADD makes me outgoing, creative, personable and allows me to develop creative solutions. It makes me fantastic in a crisis but I'm tired of leaping from one crisis to another.

I'd love to hear stories from other lawyers out there on how they developed tools to compensate, stay focused and get organized.

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I was a litigation attorney for many years until I retired last year, and although I don't have ADHD, I know a lot about it because my wife and our son both have ADHD. ADHD attorneys can be excellent trial lawyers, because they hyperfocus on their cases and really master them. But too many ADHD lawyers don't use checklists at trial, and I was able to disrupt their examinations by objecting at every opportunity, distracting them so they would forget to ask the questions they needed to ask. All trial lawyers -- and especially those with attention deficit problems -- should have a list of all the elements they need to prove to make their cases (such as duty, breach, cause, and damages), all the facts they need to prove each element, how they intend to prove each fact, and so, for each witness, a list of the facts they need to get on the record while examining that witness, crossing out each fact as it's supporting testimony is put on the record, and the same procedure for laying foundations for evidence and then putting evidence on the record. This is especially true for long trials and trials where witnesses testify out of order. ADHD lawyers in particular should never "wing it" in the courtroom; even a quick argument in motions practice deserves a 3 x 5 card with key points written down: 1, 2, 3, etc. ADHD lawyers also have problems with missing deadlines, messy offices, failing to keep time records for billing, losing documents, etc., and so need to work hard on organization and on using to-do lists; I recommend getting an assistant who is very organized! I also recommend scanning all incoming documents to the PDF format and saving them both locally and backed up to a remote site on the Internet, and of course using a file naming system that will allow the lawyer to quickly find the saved document. And it's good practice for any attorney to copy all documents to the client. Another practice tip is to file documents with the court, so, if you're in court and need a document you don't have in your briefcase, you can get it from the Clerk; this is also a great way to put inadmissible evidence in front of the judges who read the court file before trial!

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Thank you for the suggestions, all. I've printed articles and will read them.

ADDLAWYER, you and I could be twins. I've just been lucky enough to have very supportive (if frustrated) partners, but I'm exhausting their patience. I'm also getting older and pulling all-nighters has become old, even for me. I've probably done at least one a month over my now-15 year career.

Here's my latest theory about how to induce the hyperfocus earlier and "even out," as you say. I've realized that I never have a problem once my interest in something has been piqued, and I'm always able to become interested in things because I'm spoiled. I'm an appellate lawyer and I get to write about cool stuff all the time. It occurs to me that I often put off starting something because the most natural starting point is something that I find ever so slightly intimidating (reading opposing counsel's brief, for example). The deadline forces me to do the ever-so-slightly-intimidating thing, and then I'm off to the races. So now I'm going to start with something that isn't so intimidating (re-reading the district court decision, for example) to try to develop the interest earlier on.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I welcome more tips from others who have mastered this. I feel like mastering it would make finally feel like an "adult," but maybe that's never going to happen... ;-)

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Harder still is keeping on top of the daily grind. You are lucky to have supportive partners. That's rare.

Mine were up to a point but they never quite understood why I kept blowing off the simple, mundane things we all have to do - like putting in your billable time. I usually would wait a few weeks and then just before bills went out, there would be the mad dash to get it all in and I'd spend the better part of the day doing it.

In compressed situations, emergencies I was the "go to guy" but the long-term projects and the mundane things were what killed me. You knew they had to be done but something more interesting - some shiny new toy was just around the corner.

What I would love to know is how do you stay on top of the simple things? How do you stay on task without a crunch?I In essence, how do you manage yourself?

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Electronic task lists, ADDLAWYER. I have about 150 recurring tasks in my task list on Outlook. Every weekday I have two that I have to check off before I can leave the office: 1) "add to tasks" (I keep a running list of things I need to add next to my computer, just little notes like, "check court orders on X case" or whatever, and I have to add them in as new tasks at the end of each day) and then 2) "enter and close time." I can't say that I'm able to check those two off every weekday, but most. You remember more about what you did then, too, and it helps you to avoid write offs.

The important thing that I learned from a time management CLE by Irwin Karp (he does them around the country, so look for him; he's very good, and he's a lawyer, which is nice), is that you have to keep not only work tasks, but also the mundane &%^ of life, like "Exercise," "Cook dinner," or "Fill car with gas," because you're going to spend time on those things, whether you budget for them or not, so you should have them in there and budget for them. And then I have time estimates for these things. That way, each morning I can look to see what I hoped to accomplish in the day, and group them by things that I can do at the same time, like "laundry" and "read record on the X case," or whatever. I can see how many other things I need to do, as well. Sometimes I move tasks around to other days. Sometimes I just blow them off. But at least then I'm not worrying about remembering them later.

I find this especially helpful for household chores like laundry and cleaning the bathroom, or whatever. Before I kept the task lists, these kinds of things would bug me. I'd walk by the laundry bin, see laundry in it, and think "Cripes, I have to do laundry," and then I'd be trying to fit things in all the time, which would eat up a lot of the day with stupid stuff. Now I have a recurring task that starts every Saturday, and is due every Sunday. It reads "2 hours, Laundry." When the laundry bin is empty and the laundry is put away, it gets checked off and then I forget about it until the next Saturday. Checking off a bunch of tasks feels good. Housework was an especially big problem for me (not that I didn't do it, but that I did it too much) until I added it all to my task list. Heh heh. My IT guys could darned near figure out anything personal that they needed to know about me if they cared to look... ;-)

Hope that that helps.

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Strawberrygrl, ADDLAWYER makes a good point, too.

If you're like me (and probably him), you're probably highly motivated to jump in and help people in a crisis. It can be a liability in that you can get so into the "high" of having people thank you profusely for dropping everything and coming to the rescue that you don't get the other stuff done that doesn't give you that kind of psychological reward. But your ability to do that and to dig in and figure something out and then work like a madwoman until it's fixed is also likely unusual and can be used to your advantage if you're careful about it.

I once had a trial lawyer buddy who had an opponent do something odd in the middle of a trial. She objected to the evidence that he was introducing, but wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with the situation; she just knew that it was wrong. She called her partner at about 1:00 pm that day asking him what he thought. He then called me in (I was then an associate) and asked me if I could do a little research. I did. By 4:00 pm, I knew what the problem was, and I knew that, to fix it, she needed a memo. to be able to give the court and make the record. Doing the full research and writing the memo. took me all night, but by 7:00 am, she had a motion in limine on her chair. She left me a voice message saying that that was "exactly" what she needed and thanking me. The court probably never read the memo., but she submitted it to make the record for appeal, and argued the points orally. The court reversed itself and excluded the evidence. The trial lawyer NEVER forgot that incident. Years later, she helped to pitch me for partner, telling that story.

So, by all means, use that ability to your advantage and to gain loyalty from clients or your partners. Just remember that you're very vulnerable (because that's a big high) to blowing off the less "fun" things for that pyschological reward, and guard against it. One thing that I've taken to doing to guard against it is to tell my partners who are most likely to ask for last-minute help, that I'll be unable to do anything new (no matter how big an emergency it might be) for (say) the next two weeks. So I try to cut it off before it comes to me, and that helps a lot. It's VERY hard for me to say no otherwise. (That's a part of my deadline bugaboo, too.) I'm not sure that it would be that easy to do the same thing with a client, unfortunately. Maybe then the key is to screen calls a little and try to pass off things that you can't do right then to competent colleagues.

I guess that leads to another suggestion, Strawberrygrl. This is just a hunch, but I suspect that solo practice is a minefield for the ADD lawyer. I need the support of my mid-sized firm (and my government-lawyer colleagues when I was a public-interest lawyer). I would probably have had professional liability or responsibility issues without them. Either that, or I probably would have left the practice due to stress. And, again, I can't stress enough that you need to really learn to use your support staff to guard against the stupid mistakes, like forgetting the hearing (done it!), or forgetting to serve someone (guilty again!), etc.

Oh, all right (I need to shut up, don't I?), here's one more suggestion for you, Strawberrygrl. When you make the stupid mistakes, I find that the full out mea culpa usually works. People tend to forgive you if you own the mistake and beg for forgiveness. The time I forgot the hearing (because it was a Monday morning at 9:00 am and I didn't have an electronic calendar and task list that I checked every morning and evening back then), I actually remembered it at 8:30 as I was in the shower. I remember throwing open the shower curtain (water spraying all over the floor) and staring at the clock and thinking, "oh &^%!" (It was a hearing that I didn't need to do any more prepping for, so I just wasn't thinking about it.) So I momentarily panicked, then leapt out of the shower, threw on a suit, raced to my car (wet hair and everything), and just started dialing. I had my assistant call the court to explain that I was on my way. She also located the file and got it to our firm's messenger to deliver to me in the courtroom. I live in the city where the courthouse is located, so I managed to park in the building (lots of $$$) and race up the stairs, through the metal detectors, onto the elevators with the musac and everything (and people looking at my wet hair) and then into the courtroom at about 9:15. The judge, opposing counsel, court reporter, and the clerks and everyone else were there and waiting (thankfully NOT my client). I apologized profusely to the judge and counsel, saying that I should have known better than to schedule a 9:00 am Monday morning hearing. The judge was very kind and told me to catch my breath. I didn't have the file yet, but it was a relatively easy argument that I did from memory. The file arrived just as I was finishing. (To be honest, I think the judge was even a little impressed that I didn't need the notes.) I don't recall whether we won or lost the motion, but it worked out ok. Opposing counsel probably had a great time telling the story to his client, but whatever. I didn't commit malpractice, and that was what was important... And if I had..., well... if the judge had zinged my client and ruled against us because I wasn't there at 9:00 am, well, show me the person who's never made a mistake. It's what liability insurance is for. No sense trying to pass it off on anyone else (some lawyers will try to blame their assistants or lie about some sort of delay or whatever) because all that happens is that it makes you look worse. Just own it and beg for forgiveness. Most people will give it to you. Even opposing counsel will sometimes give you a break if you've been decent enough with them. They don't tell you that in law school, but it's the biggest reason that I can think of for being as collegial as possible with opposing counsel... There but for the grace of God, and all that....

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http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/2006/oct-nov/adhd.html

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adhd/add adults in school

I entered law school in 2005 as a "second career" student - the nice way they describe the old guys who aren't going to be as mold-able as our younger counterparts! I was 35 at the time, had lost a job (and left others after various periods of time) for what I realize now were performance issues related to not being able to sit at my desk and do my work. I could brainstorm and generate ideas, strategies, tactics, etc., with the best of them. But writing up a 100-page plan or following through on details was impossible for me (and very frustrating both for me and my employer and manager).

Upon returning to school, I realized that much of my academic and work-life were marred by these problems. Nothing I'm saying is terribly specific, but I'm sure it's familiar to those who experienced it too. I ended up having a very difficult time during my first 1.5 years of law school (first baby came along after the first year, too!). Talk about a challenge for undiagnosed ADHD. I basically didn't sleep, my grades suffered etc., I was useless to my wife and my time with the baby was hazy at best. So I sought help at the school's counseling service. After a surprisingly probing set of conversations with the psychologist there (and his attempts at making experimenting with exec order skills - pure failures!), he determined that mine was a textbook case of ADHD and he was shocked that I had been able to compensate and live the life I'd lived despite the failures I'd experienced!

So I'm using Adderall XR (after three hours I felt like a completely different and focused person, and nearly cried with regret and relief!) and trying to keep on top of things, but I'm really having a tough go of it. I'm essentially learning how to learn and retain, learning how to organize time, complete projects, job hunt, prepare for the bar exam, complete a required research paper (long-term project), etc. I'm having a tough time with retention and actually getting motivated, (not that I lack motivation, which is totally different that being motivated) and getting going with my school work.

I need to find some good study methods/techniques that are useful for adult students and are useful ASAP -- and if it can be transferred into productivity in the workplace, well great.

Also, any way to explain this issue to potential employers? I've done very well in clerking and volunteering - better than law school to be sure - but I know that it's a often a bottom line (GPA/class rank) process right out of law school...frustrating...

Thanks for any advice, materials, and experiences you could offer. Finally, thanks for sharing your experiences - very helpful and reassuring...and real. :)

Best, Felix.

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