Lawyer Well-Being: What's It Got To Do With Me?

Following his 2006 retirement as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Commissioner, Lindsey D. Draper oversaw Wisconsin’s adherence to the mandates of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) as the state’s Disproportionate Minority Contact Coordinator and Compliance Monitor until his retirement in 2014.

Draper previously served as Chair of the ABA then-Standing Committee on Client Protection and a Trustee at St. Francis de Sales Seminary. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors at St. Charles Youth and Family Services in Milwaukee; Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee County Historical Society; a Director-at-Large of the National Client Protection Organization (NCPO); liaison to the Wisconsin Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being; a member of the Wisconsin Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection Committee and a member of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility Continuing Legal Education Committee.

Bree Buchanan draws upon her extensive professional knowledge and experience to help legal employers excel in creating a culture of well-being. She is the founding co-chair of the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being and is a co-author of its groundbreaking 2017 report, The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. Bree is chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs (2017-2020), which works to ensure assistance is readily available for those in the legal community experiencing issues related to substance use or mental health issues.

Prior to joining Krill Strategies, she was the Director of the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program, where she regularly worked with individual lawyers experiencing behavioral health issues, and with legal employers who were seeking resources and support for their staff. Her tenure with that program followed a two-decade legal career which included positions as a litigator, lobbyist and law professor. As Senior Advisor with Krill Strategies, Bree provides consultation on issues related to lawyer well-being and impairment for major legal employers.

Ms. Buchanan is a frequent speaker for international and national law-related organizations, as well as global law firms on strategies for lawyer well-being and impairment. In 2018, she was awarded the “Excellence in Legal Community Leadership Award” by Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. She has shared her own story of recovery as a featured guest on podcasts in the United States and Canada. Ms. Buchanan’s writing has appeared in Law Practice Today, Judicature, The American Lawyer, and Family Lawyer Magazine, as well as Lawyer Health and Wellbeing: How the Legal Profession is Tackling Stress and Creating Resiliency (Ark Group, 2020).

In 2018, she graduated from the Seminary of the Southwest with a Masters in Spiritual Formation, where she honed a deep interest in the intrinsic link between meaningful work and personal well-being, as well as in assisting individuals with vocational discernment. Ms. Buchanan tends to her own well-being by engaging in a regular meditation practice, cycling, rowing, and being willing to ask for help when she needs it.