In 1995, a group of Texas lawyers created the Pat Sheeran Memorial Trust to provide financial assistance to Texas attorneys who need treatment for substance abuse, chemical dependency, and mental health issues and who do not have the financial means to pay for necessary medical care.
The trust is currently named in honor of the first director of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program, Pat Sheeran, and Michael J. Crowley, one of the founders of TLAP, who, during their lives helped many attorneys to achieve recovery from alcohol, drugs, depression, and other mental health issues. The trust is administered by a volunteer board of trustees who are members of Texas Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, Inc., an organization that works closely with TLAP.
The trust is funded solely by contributions. Assistance is provided in the form of a grant, made payable to the specific treatment or service provider. To help protect the corpus of the trust and to give applicants a significant stake in their own recovery, all applicants are asked to make a moral commitment to repay the grant.