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 Barreau du Québec’s disciplinary committee had to deal with the issue last year when it had to decide the professional fate of a Montreal lawyer with more than fifty years of experience. The lawyer, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago, faced three counts of breaching the Code of ethics of advocates and the Professional Code. “Perhaps Alzheimer’s disease explains (his) conduct,” wrote the three-chair disciplinary council. “It seems clear that the Council must take that into account when sanctioning him.” Though found guilty, all charges were stayed. The Law Society of Upper Canada’s hearing panel was put in a similar bind early this year when it allowed a Toronto lawyer afflicted with the mind-robbing disease to surrender his licence to practice law.
These heartrending scenarios will likely play out more frequently in coming years. Almost 15 per cent of Canadians over the age of 65 are living with cognitive impairment, including dementia, according to a 2012 study by the Alzheimer Society of Canada. The risk for dementia, a catch-all phrase that refers to a variety of brain disorders, doubles every five years after the age of 65. With the profession greying and more and more senior lawyers putting off retirement, it is becoming clear that the legal profession is going to have to come to grips with the sensitive issue of age-related cognitive impairment. “It is high time given the ageing of the population that we all begin to look at this very carefully,” says Tim Daley, past president of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society.
