Clean & Sober for 6 Years, Lawyer Starts New Solo Practice
Although he pleaded guilty in 1992 to misdemeanor cocaine use two years earlier, Terry Nolan didn’t realize he had a substance abuse problem.
He stopped drinking, for good, in 1998, the Michigan defense attorney tells the Muskegon Chronicle. But, fueled with the funds brought in by his successful law practice, he kept using cocaine intermittently.
His 17-year marriage ended in 2001 with a divorce. A felony drug charge in 2002 eventually led to the suspension of his law license, Chapter 7 bankruptcy and a six-month jail term for probation violation. In 2003, he was virtually living out of his car. That year was his last drug relapse, he tells the newspaper.
Earlier this year, after passing the Michigan bar exam again, he regained his license to practice law. Now he is in solo practice in Muskegon County, grateful for a second chance at professional life at age 51 and pledging to make amends and help others through his work.
“I knew Terry years ago, and I know Terry today, and he’s a different person today than he was then,” says Robert Chessman, a Muskegon lawyer who hired Nolan for his previous job as a law clerk.
For Nolan to fall as hard as he did yet “pull it together and come back, that makes a loud statement” about his character, Chessman points out. “And I think that that’s good for the whole recovering community. They need to have those success stories.”
Related earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Drinking Problem Put Lawyer on Path to a Successful Practice”
ABAJournal.com: “High-Functioning Alcoholic Lawyers May Defy Stereotypes”
