Honest Talk About the Weight Lawyers Carry.
For more than twenty years I was a trial lawyer in Ontario’s civil courts, and by every outward measure a successful one. Then the things I never talked about caught up with me. Today I speak and write across North America about mental health, addiction and wellness in the legal profession, with candour, insight and more laughter than you might expect.
At Fifty, I Had It All.
A law firm my wife and I built from scratch into one of the largest in Central Ontario. A certification as a specialist in civil litigation. Trials, clients and a good name in the town where I grew up.
What I did not have was an honest account of what the work was doing to me. In my mid-forties, alcohol and drugs entered my life for the first time, alongside mental health problems I had ignored for years. I hid all of it the way lawyers hide most things: by performing well. When I stepped away from litigation at fifty, it was less a choice than a verdict.
My story is not unusual. Saying it out loud is. I tell it so the person in the third row, the one who looks perfectly fine, hears it from someone who looked perfectly fine too.
Why Organizations Bring Me In
Lived Experience, Told Straight
No slides and no clinical distance. A former trial lawyer on what high-functioning struggle really looks like, delivered with warmth and a good deal of self-deprecating humour.
An Insider’s Grasp of the Work
Two decades of files, deadlines, staff and a payroll. I know the billable target, the 11 p.m. email and the culture that rewards silence, because I built a career inside it.
Ideas Worth Taking Home
Where the occasion suits, I share practical, low-cost ideas for individuals, firms, legal departments and regulators, drawn from my published work.
Talks, Writing, Conversations
Speaking
Keynotes and sessions for law firms, bar associations, law schools, legal departments and regulators.
See My Talks →
Publications
Articles in Maclean’s, the ABA Journal, CBA National, Canadian Lawyer and more, plus my legal writing.
See My Articles →
It’s Okay Not to Be Okay.
It is better still when someone in the room says so first. Let me be that person at your next conference, summit, annual general meeting or special presentation.