South Carolina adopts first of its kind* rule on cognitive impairment.

My paternal grandfather succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.  As someone who makes a living (such as it is) using his mind (and is pretty certain that he could not feed his family if forced to use his hands for a living), the loss of my mental faculties is one of my greatest fears.  In that regard, I suspect I am quite like a plethora of other lawyers throughout the United States.

Dealing with lawyers on the tail end of their career, and any declining mental acuity that inevitably accompanies the aging process for many human beings, is a troubling issue for law firms of any size, but particularly for smaller firms.  I’m moderating a panel at the AON Law Firm Risk Symposium in Phoenix in October that will be focusing on the ethics, employment, and loss prevention issues associated with the “graying” of the profession.

For all of these reasons, a development out of South Carolina this week is particularly noteworthy to me.  The South Carolina Supreme Court has adopted what, to my knowledge, is a first of its kind (and the reason for the asterisk in the title is that it is possible there is a rule out there like this somewhere but I’m entirely unaware of it) package of rules focused on the issue of lawyers and the onset of “cognitive impairment.”  The measures adopted by South Carolina in this order dated August 24 do three separate, but obviously interrelated things.

First, SC established a new rule, SCACR 428 entitled “Intervention to Protect Clients,” giving authority for the Executive Director of the South Carolina Bar — SC has a unified bar association so that person, unlike say in Tennessee, is a government actor (an important distinction as I discussed in another context here) — to be able, upon receipt of information from someone “expressing concern about cognitive impairment of another lawyer” to appoint “Attorneys to Intervene,” who would in turn have the authority to attempt to meet with the lawyer in question and potentially propose a course of conduct, including actions such as making referral to the “Commission on Lawyer Conduct.”

Second, SC revised its RPC 5.1 to add a new subsection:

(d) Partners and lawyers with comparable managerial authority who reasonably believe that a lawyer in the law firm may be suffering from a significant impairment of that lawyer’s cognitive function shall take action to address the concern with the lawyer and may seek assistance by reporting the circumstances of concern pursuant to Rule 428, SCACR.

Along with that subsection, a new Comment [9] was adopted stressing that the new rule “expresses a principle of responsibility to the clients of the law firm.”

Third, SC imposed an ethical obligation upon judges to take certain steps when they reach a conclusion that a lawyer practicing before them is suffering from this kind of measurable mental decline through adoption of a new Rule 501(G) in the Code of Judicial Conduct.

Whether this will be the start of a trend among states remains to be seen.  It is worth noting that whether specialized rules are adopted or not, in jurisdictions tracking the ABA Model Rules, there are ethical rules already implicated by the situation, not just for the lawyer whose skills are waning, but also for those lawyers who practice with him in a firm or even as co-counsel.  It is, for example, not much of a stretch to read the duties owed by lawyers under RPC 1.1, RPC 1.4, RPC 1.16(a), and RPC 5.1(b) and (c) to perhaps have obligations roughly similar to the new obligations being delineated in South Carolina’s RPC 5.1(d).

It is also well worth keeping in mind that given the economic climate — both market calamities several years ago and things that seem like current market calamities — there is no reason to think that the phenomenon of aging lawyers being reluctant to retire is likely to go away any time soon.  Thus, whether jurisdictions seek to carve out specialized requirements and rules as has South Carolina or not, I feel pretty safe saying these issues will continue to challenge lawyers and law firms for the rest of my lifetime.