KEN LAWSON'S PAINFUL FALL

High-Profile Lawyer Tries To Recover From A Turn To Drugs

Ken Lawson has heard this story before.

It's about a drug addict who is so desperate to stay high he cheats
people, lies to his family and breaks any rule until his life is in ruins.

Lawson, one of Cincinnati's best-known defense lawyers, used to spend
hours every day listening to clients share some version of this
hard-luck tale. He always wondered why they would risk everything for
a handful of pills or a bag of powder.

But this time the story has a twist.

This time, Lawson is the one telling it.

"I was a liar, a thief, a cheat," Lawson said. "That's who I was."

Lawson told his story this week in interviews with The Enquirer,
disclosing for the first time the extent of a drug habit that he says
almost cost him his life and may yet cost him his career.

He said he let down clients, colleagues and his family while trying
to feed an addiction that included heavy drinking, painkillers,
marijuana and cocaine.

By the time he hit bottom in January, Lawson said, he was taking as
many as 120 prescription pain pills a day, sometimes while sitting in
courtrooms alongside clients, police and prosecutors.

"It's insanity, man. It's insanity," he said. "I can't remember
having a sober moment in the last five or six years."

If Lawson's account is accurate, he would have been on drugs during
some of his biggest cases - cases that affected the community as well
as his clients. They include civil rights lawsuits against the city,
the Howard Beatty murder trial last summer and the Collaborative
Agreement that changed the way Cincinnati police do business.

As part of his recovery, Lawson said, he's now talking about his drug
use and trying to make things right.

"I don't want to be the man I was," he said. "I know I hurt a lot of
people - my children, my wife, friends, a lot of people in the community."

Lawson said his drug habit began after a shoulder injury in 1999 and,
at first, it didn't affect his work. But eventually he started
missing deadlines, nodding off in court and showing up late or not at
all for hearings.

His behavior prompted complaints and lawsuits from several former
clients. He now is the focus of a disciplinary review that could lead
to a suspension or the loss of his law license.

"It was negligence on his part," said Michelle Leahr, one of seven
former clients cited by the Cincinnati Bar Association in a complaint
against Lawson. She accuses Lawson of failing to file a wrongful
death lawsuit on behalf of her brother.

"I thought he had more credibility than that," Leahr said. "He left
my family hanging in the wind."

Lawson, who says that as of Friday, he's been sober for 65 days, is
trying to salvage what he can of his career and his life. He went
through a rehab program, attends 12-step meetings daily and is
apologizing to judges, colleagues, his family and others he misled or let down.

The list is a long one.