It took a decade of increasingly heavy drinking and the loss of a series of jobs for Anthony Bogan to accept that he had a problem.

The well-known solicitor, a member of the Law Society council for ten years, who stood at one point for president, was by then drinking wine first thing in the morning before he left for work.

“Nobody wants to talk about it. You’re faced with people telling you to pull yourself together, put a suit on and go to work. It is difficult to face the fact that illnesses like this exist.”

Mr Bogan, 49, was managing partner of the now-defunct Barber & Co. His drinking, which built up over a decade, led to the loss of his house; his children had to be moved from their schools when the family had to downsize; and also the loss of his firm.

He moved into a series of paid jobs but lost one after another through drink. “It was certainly a bottle of wine a day and sometimes more, over a long period of time – and during the day, not just the evening.”

Fortunately his wife stood by him and he now works as a local conveyancing solicitor. But help can be hard to come by. “A lot of the time it is preventable. Firms must wake up to the problem or lose some very good people.”

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