Bench & Bar January/February 2025

FEATURE: KBA MEMBER BENEFITS

KENTUCKY LAWYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM A VITAL RESOURCE FOR LEGAL PROFESSIONALS BY YVETTE HOURIGAN

T he Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Pro gram (KYLAP) is a vital resource for legal professionals in the Common wealth, offering a wide range of services designed to support law students, lawyers, and judges who may be struggling with personal and professional challenges. The program was formerly known as Lawyers Helping Lawyers and beginning in the 1980s started as an unfunded, volunteer-only orga nization begun by a group of lawyers who wanted to help other lawyers who were struggling with substance use disorders (pri marily alcoholism). For an excellent history of KYLAP’s 40 years of service to Kentucky’s legal community, see The History of KYLAP: 40 Years of Lawyers Helping Lawyers in the September/October 2022 edition of the Kentucky Bench & Bar. Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Program was established in 2002 under the authority of the Kentucky Supreme Court Rules 3.900 et seq. KYLAP operates as a confidential and independent program aimed at promoting the well-being of the legal community as a core component of competence as defined in Supreme Court Rule of Professional Responsibility 3.130(1.1) ( see Comment (7)).

CONFIDENTIALITY AND TRUST When a law student, lawyer, or judge seeks assistance for themselves (a first party or self-referral) or calls seeking assistance for another member of the legal community (a third-party referral), SCR 3.990 provides that all communications to KYLAP and all information gathered, records main tained and actions taken by KYLAP shall be confidential , shall be kept in strict confi dence by KYLAP’s staff and volunteers, shall not be disclosed by KYLAP to any person or entity, including any agency of the Court and any department of the Association, and shall be excluded as evidence in any pro ceeding before the Board of Governors or Office of Bar Admissions. Confidentiality is mandated and not discretionary. Absolute confidentiality is essential in creating a safe environment where legal profes sionals can seek help without fear

of professional consequences. To answer the questions we receive most often about KYLAP confidentiality, our scope of services, and prohibited activity, we created the chart on the next page that cites the Supreme Court Rules appli cable to KYLAP services and confidentiality.

the key to recovery

All of the assistance remains COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL, pursuant to S.C.R. 3.990.

12 january/february 2025