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International Lawyers in Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of recovered lawyers and judges carrying the message of recovery within our profession. Our purpose is to act as a bridge between reluctant (in denial) lawyers/judges and Alcoholics Anonymous.

Reach Out

If you would like to learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous please visit: http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/ . Local AA meetings for recovering lawyers are held across the country. Click on the button on the right labeled [Local Meetings] to find a meeting near you. Or you can click on the Contact Us button and send us an email and we will put you in contact with a recovering laywer in your area.

The 2008 ILAA Annual Conference will be held in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 24 - 26, 2008. Hotel reservations and additional details can be found on the "Conference Information" page of this web site.

Message from the ILAA Chair

We had a great time in Halifax. For those of you who were not there, the speakers were excellent. Bernie Mc. opened things for us at the Museum on Friday night, and told an eloquent story of losing his way, and finding it through AA in Prince Edward Island. A great number of excellent tours were enjoyed by members seeing the sights of Halifax and the harbour on Saturday, after a rousing Annual General Meeting which chose Phoenix for the 2009 conference, and Indianapolis for the 2010 conference. We heard a report from Jim S. and Brandi C. about preparations for the next conference in Little Rock, October 24-26, 2008. It is going to be great!

Saturday night we heard a powerful message of hope and recover from Scott H. of Kamloops, British Columbia. There was a great deal of gratitude in the room as he spoke of his family who were present, and the issues they have faced before and during recovery. Sunday morning our Trustee David P. gave a moving spiritual message to conclude the conference, which brought all 150 of us together as a group.

On Saturday a number of us met to discuss how we can best reach the alcoholic lawyer who still suffers. There was also discussion of this at the AGM that morning. The fact is that we are an organization which has done a great deal of good for many people all over North America. The fact also is that our membership is aging, and not expanding in the fashion that other similar groups in other professions have. We can do better, and help more people, if we can get more people involved with attending our conferences. When new people in recovery attend our conferences, they often get a great deal out of the meetings and the fellowship. To meet other lawyers who suffer from our malady can be a tremendous relief. It certainly was for me when I first came to an ILAA conference.

The challenge that I would like to present to all of you, is to bring one new person to Little Rock. Someone new in the program, or someone who you think would get something from attending our conference. We appreciate that funds can be a problem. We encourage you to do what you can with your local LAPs or Bar groups to see if some other members or yourself can help a newcomer financially to attend. There are scholarships that Little Rock has to offer to help with the conference fees, and your Trustees are eager to hear from you to offer what help we can to encourage as many people to attend as possible.

The CoLAP conference, which will be held the 4 days before the ILAA conference, also is a source of lawyers in recovery who want what we have. We are continuing to work with CoLAP, which was founded over 20 years ago by members of ILAA, to ensure that those people in recovery who attend CoLAP also attend the ILAA convention.

Think back on the benefit that you have obtained from the fellowship of CoLAP. Make plans to join us in Little Rock. Make some effort to bring at least one new person to Little Rock. I will be doing the best I can to bring at least one new person. I hope you can join me in that effort.

Yours in recovery,
Ian A., Vancouver, BC