Pauline H. Tesler

In January of 2012, after more than 30 years of law practice, I became founding director of the Integrative Law Institute at Commonweal (www.integrativelawinstitute.org) and began building ILI's infrastructure and programs, while maintaining a part time law practice.  ILI offers certification in Integrative Law through continuing education credits that can be earned in ILI programs and in the programs of ILI's select partners.

I am a specialist in family law, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization since 1984, and a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. After conducting a vigorous litigation and appellate practice for twenty years, in the mid-1990's I became a pioneer in developing and extending the practice of Collaborative Law and interdisciplinary team Collaborative Divorce worldwide.

I co-founded the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) in the late 1990’s, served as its first President, and co-founded its journal, The Collaborative Review, which I  co-edited and for which I wrote articles and a regular column ( “Dear Collaborator”) during its early years. I  chaired the Standards Committee that drafted the first international standards for Collaborative Practice, and chaired the first IACP Ethics Task Force. In addition to many journal and law review articles, I have written two leading books about collaborative legal practice.  My  critically-acclaimed practice manual, Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation (published in 2001 by the American Bar Association) was the first book-length treatise for collaborative lawyers. A substantially revised second edition was published in 2008.  I co-authored (with psychologist Peggy Thompson) Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move On With Your Life (HarperCollins, 2006), intended for general readers and as a practice development tool for collaborative lawyers. Excerpts from the book can be read at www.collaborativedivorcebook.com.

Since the mid-1990's, I have been active in training and speaking about  interdisciplinary collaborative team practice.  I have introduced thousands of lawyers and other professionals to collaborative practice in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.  I offer unique and constantly evolving interdisciplinary and lawyer-only trainings as well as skill-building and practice development workshops at all levels.  I also  provide online and telephone mentoring, coaching, and case consultation to individuals and teams whose cases are in difficulty and to practice groups and study groups interested in exploring sophisticated issues in collaborative practice.   I  received (with Stu Webb) the first "Lawyer as Problem Solver" award from the American Bar Association in 2002, have  been named a California “Superlawyer” annually for nearly a decade, and have been included in “Best Lawyers in America” since 2011.

Increasingly, my  writing, speaking and training have focused on integrative law and specifically on practical applications in conflict resolution work of new understandings from the behavioral and evolutionary neurosciences.  I believe we cannot be capable lawyer-peacemakers without a sound understanding of how we are wired as  humans to experience conflict and disruptions in close personal relationships.   Moreover, I believe that the many vectors that constitute the integrative law movement are operating largely by looking inward rather than building the connections that are needed for integrative law to have substantial change impact within the legal profession.  Through ILI, I am working to shape an integrative law jurisprudence and to teach lawyers the understandings and skills of integrative law across those many interrelated  vectors. That is the work I intend to focus on for the next years of  my professional life.

More information about my  work  can be found at:

www.integrativelawinstitute.org, and on LinkedIn at the Integrative Law Institute group, and on the Integrative Law Institute page on Facebook, and at my  website, www.teslercollaboration.com.  Follow me @phtcollab.

To inquire about speaking and training engagements, email me:  phtesler@integrativelawinstitute.org.