Canadian Lawyer

26 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m I n her judicial application, Michele Hollins was asked how her experience would provide her with insight into the diversity of Canadian perspectives. She cited the impact of mental illness in her answer. She said that her previ- ous work at the Canadian Bar Association had brought her into contact with many legal professionals dealing with addictions and other personal issues that kept them from being good lawyers and happy human beings. "I think judges must always be mindful of the fact that the litigants (and lawyers) before them may be struggling with unseen illness," she wrote. Hollins would know. Many years before, she suffered from an unseen illness that had a profound impact on her work and her personal life. And although her illness may have been invisible at the time, the legal profession has since heard loud and clear about the real impact it had on her. Hollins was a single mother with twin daughters, working as a civil liti- Being appointed as a judge hasn't stopped Michele Hollins from speaking openly about her struggles with depression By Tim Wilbur CONFRONTING THE UNSEEN C R O S S E X A M I N E D gator in Calgary. Despite the challenges of balancing her career and looking after two teenagers, her life was enviable. She was a partner at Dunphy Best Blocksom LLP with "great clients," she says, and her daughters were in their last year of high school and "bound for great things." They were picking which universities they wanted to attend, and the hard work she had put into raising them had paid off. But she was suffering invisibly. "I started to be very sad. And I'm not a sad person at all ever. And I just couldn't shake it. And it was just getting worse and worse and worse every day. And I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't talk myself out of it. "That was the beginning of my depres- sion. It took many months to figure out what was going on. And in fact, it took a couple of people in my life to intervene and tell me that I was not doing okay, that there was something really wrong with me that I wasn't going to be capable of just fixing on my own." Those interventions convinced Hollins to get professional help. It eventually became clear that her feelings were because her girls were going to leave her. DEREK HEISLER

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