Your partner has a heart attack and the first thing you do is inform the attorney discipline committee because you’re sure he can’t be as strong an advocate with a weakened heart. Absurd. Right?

So then when would it be necessary to turn in a colleague who is depressed? What if she is an alcoholic or a drug abuser and can’t be counted on to safeguard client information if she blacked out? What if he is suicidal and you worry that reporting him might prompt him to kill himself?