Mental health law becomes this law prof and author's focus after walking 'Through the Fire'
The most dangerous moments of Fredrick Vars’ life guided his career path.
The first came in fall 2004, when he was a third-year associate at a law firm then known as Miller Shakman & Beem in Chicago.
Just days after he’d won his first jury trial representing a union member suing the union for retaliation, he experienced his first psychotic episode. Though he had dealt with depression much of his life, he’d later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
It’s a day that he barely remembers. His delusional behavior was so concerning that his wife called 911 for an ambulance.
“But who shows up? A police officer in uniform with a gun at the front door,” says Vars, the author of Through the Fire: How People with Mental Illness are Empowering Each Other. “I was so delusional. I don’t think I was nearly as afraid as I should have been in that situation.”
Vars, a Yale Law School graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, recently had started a new medication.
“That, combined with stress at work, was the trigger for the manic episode,” he says.
He voluntarily committed to a Chicago psychiatric hospital, signing a paper that placed him in a locked psychiatric unit, a move that he’d later question as legal.
“I really had no awareness of the law around mental health,” he says. “It just seemed crazy to me that my consent was given in a state where I had no idea what the paper I was signing said. How could that possibly be legal? That can’t be informed consent.”
After he was discharged and at home, he entered a deep depression, fighting suicidal ideation as he worked his way back.
“We lived in an apartment on the 12th floor, and I was afraid to go near the windows. I was afraid to go in the kitchen because there were knives. I just didn’t trust myself,” he says.
He healed and went back to work, but in spring 2006, the second defining moment came. Facing stress and handling another medication change, he had another manic episode followed by another hospital stay.
Fredrick Vars is the author of Through the Fire: How People with Mental Illness are Empowering Each Other.
With the help of lithium, he stabilized and realized that he needed a career change.
“It’s tough when your brain fails you,” he says.
Inspired by his parents, both professors at Oregon State University, he decided that he’d move into legal education.
He knew that he needed a job talk paper—a manuscript to be the foundation of his application—as he faced the academic interview process. He chose “the in-between status of voluntary hospitalization and commitment,” he says.
It worked. He was hired at the University of Alabama School of Law as an associate law professor in 2008. With help from medication and self-care, he says, he received tenure.
The biggest difference between practicing law and teaching, Vars says, is that now he can conduct research on the topic of his choice. He’s focused on firearms regulation and suicide prevention. Along with papers in academic journals, in 2020, Vars co-authored Weapon of Choice: Fighting Gun Violence While Respecting Gun Rights.
Vars has been an advocate for Donna’s Law, a voluntary self-registry creating a prohibition on firearm sales as a self-defense against suicide.
“It’s a real passion project for me,” he says.
“Donna was a woman actually not too different from myself, dealing with bipolar disorder, had voluntarily admitted herself to psychiatric care multiple times,” Vars says. “After too many years of depression, she decided to impulsively purchase a gun and killed herself the same day.”
Dying by suicide is the 10th largest cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Testifying before the Kansas legislature and in other states pushed him to become more open.
“It made me a more effective advocate when I testify to say I had bipolar disorder, I’d been suicidal, I would sign up,” he says.
Donna’s Law is now on the books in five states, but Vars’ goal is to have it enacted federally.
“It would just take one bill to provide that option in 50 states,” he adds.
For Vars, going public with his diagnosis has not been easy.
“I thought I’d tell the world, ‘Oh, I have bipolar disorder.’ But people generally are not listening. Disclosure is not a one-time thing. It’s an over-and-over process,” he says. “Each time, I have a little hesitancy, but it goes away more and more.”
While working on Donna’s Law, he started interviewing advocates, mostly people living with mental health challenges and their loved ones. Those conversations kickstarted his work on Through the Fire.
But in fall 2024, as he was finishing the book, he had to stop taking lithium, which was impacting his kidney function.
After 18 years of stability, switching meds—combined with work pressure—sent him back to the hospital in a manic episode.
“It was harder this time,” Vars says. “I write about that in the epilogue.”
While he’s holding off on writing another book soon, he continues his teaching, with seminars on mental health law.
“A group of people who have really positively responded to my openness are my students. I make a point of saying if you ever need to talk to someone, we have counselors, they’re the professionals; but come knock on my door at any time,” he says.
Many do just that. Often, they are fearful of the questions on the character and fitness portion of the Alabama bar, asking whether candidates have a condition, including mental health disorders, that might affect the ability to practice law.
Some students say they are avoiding mental health treatment—fearful that they’d receive a diagnosis and then have to respond yes to that question.
“It’s a tricky one,” Vars says. “The answer is almost certainly yes. You have to be forthcoming to the bar.”
Still, he advises that treatment is the biggest priority.
“Get treatment early. Don’t let fear prevent you from getting treatment.” he says. “Taking care of yourself is the best thing you can do. Can you still be a good lawyer? Yes, you can.”
#MyPathToLaw is a guest column that celebrates the diversity of the legal profession through attorneys’ first-person stories detailing their unique and inspiring trajectories.
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