Meet the LCL Staff: Members / About LCL / Activity / History / Video / Donations

Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (MNLCL) operates with a volunteer board of directors, an executive director and an assistant to the director.

Joan Bibelhausen is Executive Director of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers. Joan received her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1983 and has significant additional training in the areas of counseling, mental health and addiction, diversity, employment issues and management. She has spent more than two decades working with lawyers who are at a crossroads because of mental illness and addiction concerns as well as work/life balance, stress and related issues. 

Joan is a member of the MN State Bar Association, Hennepin and Ramsey County and American Bar Associations, and MN Women Lawyers, among others. She currently serves on the ABA Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs (CoLAP), chairs CoLAP’s Education Committee and is on its Conference Planning and Judicial Resource Committees.  She has chaired the MSBA Life and the Law Committee and the HCBA Solo and Small Firm Practice Section and has co-chaired the HCBA Diversity Committee. Joan also served on the MSBA Board of Governors and HCBA's Strategic Planning and Leadership Institute task forces. She has developed and presented numerous CLE and other programs and has written on mental health and addiction, career and life balance and satisfaction, stress, diversity, marketing and other issues of concern to the legal profession.

Contact Joan.

Ellen M. Murphy-Fritsch began working with Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers as Case Manager in December 2006. Ellen received a B.S. in criminal justice with a minor in theology from Loyola University Chicago in 1994. In 1996, Ellen completed a Chemical Health Counseling Certificate through the University of Minnesota. In 2002 Ellen earned her J.D. at William Mitchell College of Law.

Ellen has work experience in corrections, dual-diagnosis treatment, assessment, investigations, restorative justice and law. While earning her J.D., Ellen spent several years working for Saint Paul Public Schools where she provided education and support to youth struggling mental health, abuse, and other social emotional issues.

Since completion of her J.D., Ellen has clerked for a District Court Judge, contracted with attorneys on writing projects and has practiced law part-time from her home office while raising four small children.

Diane Markel, MS, LADC, is the newest staff member at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers. Diane joined LCL as a Case Manager in January 2009. Diane received her BA in Social Welfare from University of Mary, Bismarck, ND. After working as a social worker at ND State Hospital for two years, she received her MS in Addiction Counseling at ND State University, Fargo, ND. Diane comes to us after working the last nine years at Hazelden Foundation, Center City, MN.

Diane has worked in the addiction field as an outpatient counselor, intake counselor, family counselor, continuing care counselor and recovery coach. She has developed and implemented several addiction programs, including two inpatient Family Programs, an Outpatient Day Treatment Program, the addiction component of a Dual Diagnosis Outpatient Program, and two Family Continuing Care groups.