Complete Lawyer devoted to the greying of the legal profession

This month’s issue of The Complete Lawyer has several articles discussing lawyers and aging.  One article of particular interest addresses how to know when memory issues are beginning to interfere with the ability to do one’s job.  It begins:

Judge Y, a distinguished federal judge,sought my advice about when  he should resign from the court. Despitehis lifetime appointment, he was concerned that his memory “wasn’t asgood as it used to be.”  Although he attributed this to advancing age,he was especially concerned because his father had developedAlzheimer’s disease in his late 70s. 

On subsequent visits, Ibegan to suspect that Judge Y was right.  My office is located at theend of one of three corridors on the floor of my office building. Infive visits, he never once found my corridor on the first try despitethe fact that several signs indicated the way.  Another clue was thefact that at each visit he presented me with a copy of his favorite‘read’—a biography of Theodore Roosevelt.  I now have five copies ofthat book.

Extensive tests revealed that his immediate memorywas severely impaired.  I suggested that he should consider resigningfrom the court. But after each visit he would leave my office andpromptly forget our conversation—as well as my recommendation that heresign.  After considerable discussion during which I insisted that Idid not see how he could recall oral arguments, he allowed me tocontact his chief judge. Interestingly, this judge was initiallyreluctant to do anything. Judge Y had been a political appointmentand—given the existing political landscape he was faced with a dilemma:retaining a judge with no memory or having no judge at all to rememberanything. Fortunately, he made the right decision.

More at http://www.thecompletelawyer.com/volume3/issue4/article.php?ppaid=3828

Thanks to Stephanie West Allen for the tip.