National Perspective : Attorneys Report Big Jump in Drinking in ABA Survey : The study finds 20% of women and 11% of men have six or more drinks a day. It blames job dissatisfaction and stress for the rise in alcohol use.

A survey by the American Bar Assn. has found an “astonishing rise” in reported alcohol consumption by lawyers--with 13% of attorneys admitting to having six or more drinks a day.

That contrasts with less than one-half of 1% of attorneys who said they drank that much in the last such survey in 1984.

Women lawyers reported even greater alcohol consumption than men. Twenty percent of the women lawyers surveyed reported having six or more drinks a day, contrasted with 11% of the men.

The findings link the apparent rise in lawyer drinking to greater dissatisfaction and stress among lawyers, as collegiality has waned and the profession has been transformed into more of a hard-nosed business.

BACKGROUND: “The profession has lost its roots in a way,” said Ronald L. Hirsch, who directed the 1990 survey on behalf of the ABA’s Young Lawyer Division in Chicago.

Hirsch pointed to a decline in loyalty to law firms that is most evident in major cities, where competitors routinely raid one another for attorney talent.

The survey found also that lawyers believe that backbiting and political intrigue inside firms are on the rise and that law firm managers are demanding longer hours and greater productivity.

The study, entitled “The State of the Legal Profession,” was based on a nationwide survey of 3,248 lawyers conducted earlier this year and compared to the results of the 1984 study. It noted:

“The data reflect . . . the concern of many that increases in hours worked and the resulting decrease in personal time have become a major problem (and) that the legal profession has in recent years become a less pleasant place to work . . . .

The study said that “the real impact of increased dissatisfaction” appears to be more “destructive behavior by lawyers” directed at their families, their clients and themselves.

Partly in response to working longer hours, 71% of the lawyers surveyed said they “frequently feel fatigued or worn out by the end of the workday”--up from 61% in 1984.

Seventeen percent said they had unhappy marriages--contrasted with 11% in the earlier survey.

The 13% of lawyers saying they had six or more beers, glasses of wine or mixed drinks a day is much greater than in the general population, according to other studies.

“That’s amazing,” said Terry Zobeck, senior research analyst for the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, a consulting firm that does statistical studies for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “We’re talking some heavy drinking guys and gals,” he said.

Zobeck said that no similar surveys by other professional groups have been made public but that national surveys conducted for the federal government in 1983 and 1988 showed that only about 1% of the general population admits having five or more drinks a day.

Hirsch said that 30% of the lawyers questioned said they had three to five drinks on an average day--up from 8% in 1984; 35% said they had one or two drinks a day--up from 19%; 16% said they averaged several drinks a week--down from 37%, and 6% said they had one drink or less a week--down from 26%.

IMPACT: The study suggested, but offered no statistical proof, that many client problems with lawyers are traceable to lawyers’ heavy alcohol consumption.

Sheree Swetin, staff director for the ABA’s Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability, said: “We believe that a high percentage of legal malpractice problems are caused by . . . alcohol, chemical dependency and stress.” But she said: “We don’t have any statistics.”

But one thing is clear. “Sober lawyers are better lawyers,” said Don Muccigrosso, senior loss prevention attorney for the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund, a mandatory state malpractice insurance program.

Muccigrosso recalled a survey of lawyers who were recovering from drinking problems. Malpractice claims had been filed against more than 60% of them in the periods in which they were drinking, he said. After they sobered up, claims were filed against only 2%.