A confidential lawyer assistance program for California firms.
Lawyers carry adversarial work, punishing hours, and a well-documented risk of depression and problem drinking, and most will not use a bar-run assistance program for fear of who might find out. CEREVITY gives a California firm a confidential, private-pay lawyer assistance program, matched by hand and delivered so that nothing routes through the firm health plan.
What CEREVITY is.
A nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians, offered as a confidential assistance program for a firm's lawyers.
CEREVITY is a nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians providing private-pay therapy by secure telehealth across all 50 states. It is not an app, not a coaching marketplace, and not an employee assistance program. Each lawyer is matched by hand to a clinician who understands high-pressure professional work, and keeps that clinician over time.
For the firm, the model is simple to reason about. Care is private-pay with no insurance claim filed, so nothing routes through the firm health plan and no claim record is created. The program sits above any existing EAP and the bar's assistance program rather than replacing them, aimed at the lawyers those channels rarely reach.
CEREVITY runs the same structure across the profession, from partner-level benefits at AmLaw 100 firms to association-wide programs like the bar association therapy benefit. The California firm version is built for the lawyers a bar-run program was never able to reach.Why a firm-level program is different.
The reason lawyers avoid help is not lack of need, and the standard assistance program was not built to overcome it.
Lawyers carry adversarial, high-stakes work under relentless time pressure, and the profession's own data shows the toll, documented in our writing on the mental health crisis in law.
This has been established for years, not newly discovered, as our summary of what the ABA research shows makes clear.
of licensed lawyers screened positive for problematic drinking, well above the rate in comparable professions. Source: American Bar Association and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, 2016 (Krill et al., Journal of Addiction Medicine); 20.6 percent.
In California specifically, the pressures are amplified by market and cost of living, and lawyers there need care that fits their reality, which is why we offer therapy for California attorneys managing high-stakes stress.
A bar-run assistance program or a generic EAP is structurally mismatched to this problem. Lawyers rarely use either, both because the format does not fit and because they fear that reaching out could reach the bar. That fear is measurable and specific, as our note on why so many lawyers fear therapy ends a career documents. The need goes unmet quietly, which is the most expensive way for it to go unmet.
What lawyers actually bring to the work.
The presenting issues behind the billing, in the language of the firm.
The billable clock
A target that never resets turns pressure into a way of life and coping into a habit. Working with that specific pressure is the focus of therapy for lawyers facing billable-hour burnout.
Anxiety as baseline
The adversarial nature of the work keeps the nervous system on alert long after the day ends, close to the pattern we treat in anxiety in trial attorneys.
Fine on the surface
High performance can mask real depression, which is what makes it dangerous. This is the territory of high-functioning depression in lawyers.
The bar looming
The single biggest reason lawyers avoid help is fear that it could surface in character-and-fitness or state bar reporting. The reality is narrower than the worry, as our note on therapy and state bar reporting concerns explains.
Is this the job I wanted
Disillusionment is common when the work stops matching the reason someone entered law. That quiet reckoning is the subject of therapy for lawyers who have come to hate the job.
Who ends up leaving
The attrition is not evenly distributed, and firms lose talent they spent years developing. The data on female attorneys leaving law over mental health is a clear example.
Made partner, feel empty
The reward at the top of the track does not always feel like one, and few lawyers have anywhere to say so. That gap is the subject of therapy for attorneys who made partner and feel empty.
Carrying the firm
The people responsible for everyone else's workload rarely tend to their own, the subject of our work on managing partner stress.
The bar built a program to help lawyers. The same lawyers will not use it, because it runs through the bar.
Session formats built for billable calendars.
Three lengths, no rigid weekly slot.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care in 50-minute sessions.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour can hold. See 90-minute sessions.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution. See 3-hour therapy intensives.
Care is delivered in 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour sessions by secure telehealth, nationwide. A lawyer can do focused work in a single 90-minute or 3-hour block on a lighter day rather than forcing a standing weekly appointment that a filing deadline will break. Modality is matched at intake rather than assigned, and the lawyer keeps the same clinician throughout. When the situation is urgent, same-week access is the norm rather than the exception.
Reach the lawyers a bar program never could.
A confidential conversation about an attorney-tier program takes one call. Nothing about it touches the firm health plan.
Start a partnership conversationHow a lawyer is matched.
Every lawyer is matched by hand, not by an algorithm running against an intake form. Matching is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership, with the lawyer's practice, schedule, and preferences weighed before any introduction is made.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. Operated by CEREVITY directly, not by a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. This is the step that does not exist in an EAP. You can review the clinicians in the network directly.
A specific clinician is matched to the lawyer, who receives the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link. If you are doing this for someone else, see how to find a therapist for your CEO.
Scheduling runs directly through CEREVITY infrastructure with no phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed session cap.
Capability comparison for California law firms.
An evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping an attorney-tier program. All three models have a place; they are built for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between employer and contractor roster | Single-vendor platform, W-2 or contracted pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review by network leadership |
| Intake and scheduling | Phone handoff to the clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute, capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as an upsell | Built around the presenting issues of lawyers |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, IFS, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Employer-sponsored, in network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private pay, out of network, partnership agreement |
| Firm visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement metrics | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing care with an executive add-on | California law firms, end to end |
If you are running a formal evaluation, our notes on what to look for in a private therapy provider cover the procurement side in detail.
What the firm sees, and what it does not.
For an attorney-tier program to work, the lawyer has to trust that using it creates no visibility into their care, and no exposure to the firm or the bar. CEREVITY is built around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named lawyer's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named lawyer has scheduled, attended, or engaged.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, or diagnostic information.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live. Our notice of privacy practices and privacy policy are published in full.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform. The administrative layer the partner interacts with is structurally separate from the clinical layer. Further context on why this matters to this population: private-pay therapy and confidentiality.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it, and whether one applies is a determination made with counsel rather than assumed. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope in writing before anything goes live. See also our terms of service.
Lawyers in particular ask about downstream exposure before they will engage at all. The question that comes up most is whether therapy shows up on a background check, and it is answered directly on our site.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a attorney-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first lawyer in care.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner. The BAA, where applicable, is executed.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network and establishes the verification path at intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, attorney-tier comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. It is written to be received without stigma, which matters given why discretion is the deciding factor for CEOs in the first place.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days. By day 30 the partnership is operational and a quarterly review cadence is in place.
The business case for the firm.
Lawyer retention, sustained performance, and risk reduction are the levers, and an unwell lawyer is a risk to the firm as well as to themselves.
Retention of lawyers
Attrition and disengagement are expensive, and the lawyers most at risk are often the ones a firm most wants to keep. Confidential clinical care reaches the lawyers least likely to ask, and it is a concrete part of retaining high-value people.
Sustained performance
Judgment, focus, and reliability degrade under chronic, unmanaged stress, and burnout's impact on productivity is measurable well before a lawyer steps back. Care that addresses the underlying pattern protects the work and the client relationships that depend on it.
Risk and recruiting signal
A confidential program that lawyers will actually use reduces the quiet risk of an unaddressed crisis and signals that the firm takes wellbeing seriously, which is why some firms pair it with formal therapist referral programs.
Questions firm leaders ask first.
Does this replace the state bar's assistance program or our EAP?
No. CEREVITY sits above both as a confidential, firm-sponsored program. The bar's program and any EAP remain available, while CEREVITY provides matched, ongoing clinical care that lawyers will actually use because nothing routes through the bar or the firm. The point is reach, not duplication.
How is confidentiality protected for our lawyers?
Care is private pay, so no insurance claim is filed and nothing routes through the firm health plan. There is no claim record for a benefits administrator, an insurer, or the firm to access, and nothing is reported to the bar. Sessions remain between the lawyer and the licensed clinician, who is bound by their own licensure confidentiality obligations. The firm sees only that the program exists and is used, never who used it or why.
Which lawyers are typically covered?
Scope is defined in the partnership agreement. Most firms cover their lawyers across offices, including litigation-heavy groups such as those we support at California litigation boutiques, and some extend it to staff. The scope stays attorney-focused so it does not blur into a general EAP.
Is this the same as the counseling in our EAP?
No. EAP counseling is typically short-term and generic. CEREVITY is ongoing, matched clinical care with a clinician who understands the professional context, which is what makes it usable for people who would never touch a firm or bar channel. Continuity with the same clinician is the point.
How quickly can a lawyer be matched?
Once the partnership is in place, an individual lawyer is matched by hand to an appropriate clinician, typically on a same-week basis depending on licensure footprint and modality fit. First sessions are usually scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match. Matching is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership rather than assigned algorithmically.
Does CEREVITY work for firms of different sizes across California?
Yes. Care is delivered by secure telehealth nationwide across all 50 states, and the model scales from large firms down to smaller practices, including a group-rate benefit for California solo and small firms.
What does it cost the firm?
Structure is agreed in the partnership conversation and depends on the number of lawyers covered and the scope of access. CEREVITY is a private-pay network with transparent fees, so there are no insurance-driven surprises in the accounting. Standard individual rates are published on our pricing page.
How do we begin?
Start a partnership conversation using the form on this page, by phone at (562) 295-6650, or through the contact page. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially to scope a program that fits the firm.
Start a partnership conversation.
Tell us about your firm and the lawyers you want to cover. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially.
Further reading and related partnerships.
Research, clinical writing, and the other legal verticals CEREVITY supports.
Research and data
For firm leaders
Clinical writing
A note on sources.
The figure that roughly 21 percent of licensed lawyers screened positive for problematic drinking is drawn from a landmark study by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, as reported by the ABA Journal, which surveyed nearly 13,000 licensed attorneys and reported a rate of 20.6 percent. The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who work with the legal profession, combined with publicly available materials. Specific contractual scopes, including any Business Associate Agreement, are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before a partnership goes live. Additional CEREVITY research is collected in the knowledge base. This page discusses alcohol use in a research context; if this is affecting you or a colleague, confidential help is available.
