legal sanity

Last week, I was a panelist and presenter at a two-day conference on Law as a Healing Profession. The presentations and discussions centered on some interesting themes, including:

• The Lawyer as Therapeutic Agent 
  

• Resolving Civil Disputes

• Cultivating Cross-Cultural Competence

• Wellness and Well-being

My panel addressed the subject of law and spirituality. Of course, to many practitioners and observers, this seems to be as potent a combination as oil and water. But, as I’ve explored here at legal sanity and in my training and development programs, there is a potential connection between the two.

To realize that potential, it’s important to understand that spirituality isn’t necessarily synonymous with God or religion. Rather, spirituality can refer to how we infuse what we do for a living with a greater (or higher) sense of meaning and purpose.

When I was at the conference, I met David A. Hoffman. David is the founder of the Boston Law Collaborative, a firm devoted to conflict resolution and collaborative law practice. David pointed me to a commentary on collaborative law he recently wrote for the Christian Science Monitor. The piece offers a well-rounded, insider take on the history, risks and benefits of this “healing approach” to the law.

To me, David’s perspective on the law’s ability to heal, rather than divide, people goes to the heart of the law-spirituality connection. It’s this healing effect that many discontented lawyers are looking to reclaim in their practice. In turn, the more practitioners find their way to reclaiming this kind of meaning and purpose in the law, the healthier the profession will become.