Gray Matters: The Ethics of Recovery and Cognition

William John Kane, a member of the New Jersey Bar for fifty years and graduate of Seton Hall Law School is Director of the New Jersey Lawyers Assistance Program. Since 1981 he has served as adjunct faculty teaching “Alcoholism and the Law” and “Counseling the Professional Client,” for the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Summer school. During private legal practice while specializing in health issues, he lectured at New York Law School and held adjunct professor positions at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Kean College and the graduate school of Montclair State University. While in the Peace Corps (1962-1964) he was on faculty of College Camerounais d’Arts et Sciences in Central Africa.

Kane was among the nation’s first Certified Employee Assistance Professionals. He is the author of several articles, (The Barrister, ABA Young Lawyer magazine, New Jersey Lawyer). He serves as federal confidentiality specialist in the public and private sector and as consultant to student assistance programs. He received the Justice William J. Brennan award for Citizenship and Leadership, Commission on Professionalism’s 2001 Lawyer of the Year Award, New Jersey State Bar Foundation Medal of Honor in 2004, Canadian Bar Association Cushman-MacDonald Award, Diskin Memorial Award for Significant Clinical Contributions and was named “Person of the Year” by the Council on Compulsive Gambling. Kane implemented the first employee assistance programs for several national corporations and has extensive clinical experience within various treatment modalities. He served as Commissioner for Lawyer Assistance Programs of the American Bar Association and is a member of the Judicial Assistance Initiative.

Scott R. Mote, Esq., is Executive Director of the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program, Inc. (OLAP), an Ohio nonprofit incorporated in 1991, and granted IRC 501(c)(3) status in 1992. A recovering alcoholic since January 7, 1985, Scott began volunteering with the Ohio State Bar Association's (OSBA) Lawyers Assistance Committee (LAC) in September 1985. He has been involved with the LAC/OLAP for over 30 years, serving as OLAP's first Associate Director beginning in 1995, and becoming Executive Director in March 1999.

Scott has made over 700 presentations to lawyers, judges and law students, including the annual conventions of the OSBA, the Ohio Judicial Conference, the Ohio Judicial College, the Oho Ethics Commission, the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (ABA CoLAP), the National Organization of Bar Counsel, and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. He has facilitated over 150 interventions, and oversees four other chemical dependency and mental health professionals. Statistically, OLAP opens a new file nearly every day across the state.

Prior to making OLAP a fulltime endeavor in June 2007, Scott was a general practice lawyer and civil litigator for over 30 years, the last 18 as a founding partner of Harris, McClellan, Binau & Cox PLL, Columbus, where he is Of Counsel.

Tish Vincent is the Chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. She retired from serving eight years and four months as the Program Director of the Lawyers & Judges Assistance Program at the State Bar of Michigan on July 24, 2020. She is licensed to practice law and social work in the State of Michigan and holds her Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor certification. Ms. Vincent is a co-host of the State Bar of Michigan On Balance podcast produced by Legal Talk Network. She presents frequently on issues of wellness, stress management, and risks attorneys and judges face when their own wellness is neglected.

She is credentialed by the American Social Work Board to present continuing education in Social Work. She presents for the Michigan State University School of Social Work, Community Mental Health, and to other social service agencies on Ethics, Treatment of Co-Occurring Disorders, Diagnosis, Referral and Treatment of Substance Use Disorders, Monitoring Programs and other topics.

She is a licensed attorney and a licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of Michigan. She earned her JD from the Michigan State University College of Law and her MSW from the Michigan State University College of Social Work.