All posts tagged: dementia

Dementia creeping into the legal profession

Dementia is beginning to creep into the legal profession in the same insidious manner it does in the lives of people, sneaking in and leaving hints before constraining regulators and law firms alike to make heart-wrenching decisions.

“The good news is that an ageing lawyer population means that there is a greater number of lawyers with tremendous experience that have insight and wisdom that could be shared with newer members of the bar,” notes Marian De Souza, the executive director of the Alberta Lawyers’ Assistance Society. “The other side is that as the lawyer population ages, statistically there will be greater numbers that will show cognitive impairment and other medical issues.”

Indeed, the spectre of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia facing the profession is harshly brought home by projections made this summer by the Professional Liability Insurance Fund of the Barreau du Québec — of the 1,949 Quebec lawyers over the age of 65, about 200 risk being afflicted by what British John Bayley called the “insidious fog.”