Lawyers as Peacemakers

On my desk, I have a red button with the word "easy" written in white letters. Whenever I press the red button, a voice chirps: "that was easy."

Kim echoed this sentiment when I spoke to her this morning. Book is sold out. Sixty law students show up at a lecture in Missouri. Her laundry gets taken care of, as well as the rest of her needs, as if by magic. And is she tired from the traveling, the speaking engagements, the endless questions to the tune of ... "um, but is this peacemaking business, you know, practical?" Nope. "Invigorated" is the word she used. When she said that, I thought back to the times I have watched Amma, considered by many to be Hindu saint, spend 20 hours giving hugs non stop, smiling and laughing the whole time. According to Amma, "when there is love there is no effort."

"These new “communities” of lawyers and ideas inspire a look outside the box of our patterned way of thinking. They invite us into a transdisciplinary understanding of the value we add to people’s lives, and to the companies and other entities they lead and work for. More importantly, they help guide in our own search for what it means to practice law in a meaningful way, expanding our horizons of thought, feeling, emotion and spirit."

For full article, see: http://www.mediate.com/articles/shafferJ1.cfm

Yay! We've had some favorable reviews of Lawyers as Peacemakers, Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law!

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Lawyers_as_Peacemakers_Practicing_Ho...

J. Kim Wright is an ambitious woman. In this comprehensive resource manual, she describes dozens of ways in which lawyers, judges and legal workers across the country (and around the world) are attempting to change their profession for the better. The terms sound hopeful – Holistic Law, Renaissance Law, Transformative Law, Law with a Meditative Perspective. Spiritual Law, Law as a Healing Profession, Restorative Justice, Therapeutic Jurisprudence. Most profoundly, as the title reflects, “Lawyers as Peacemakers.” - Lainey Feingold

and

http://thedivorcecoachscorner.blogspot.com/2010/05/bringing-love-to-law....

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.       ~M. Gandhi

For a long time, our movement has operated under the radar. CuttingEdgeLaw was created partly to shine a light on a growing movement that had been ignored by most of the mainstream. (There have been some notable exceptions where the major media did cover us.)

Then the ABA published Lawyers as Peacemakers and it went to the best seller list in the first week and was named one of the 50 Flagship Books of the ABA. It became difficult to ignore.

From time to time over the years, I've given many lawyers a laugh by talking about lawyers as peacemakers and a movement in the law toward healing and problem-solving.

We may be reaching a new stage.