In the legal profession, where adversarial proceedings often dominate, the concept of a restorative lawyer offers a transformative approach to justice—one that encourages legal practitioners to move beyond traditional roles and embrace healing, growth, and community well-being.
Beyond the Adversarial System
The traditional legal system, with its focus on procedures, laws, and winning, can often leave individuals feeling unheard and unhealed.
In 1998, when I served as an assistant prosecutor, I walked into the courtroom on the third day of a jury trial with a family member of the victim. He looked at me and said that this experience was “worse than a funeral.” Many victims later reported that courtroom victories felt hollow, since they did not address the underlying harm or lead to genuine accountability and apology. Some clients have described the legal system to me as one that compounded suffering rather than manifesting justice.
A restorative lawyer recognizes these limitations and seeks to find the healing power within the practice of law. This involves a shift in mindset—from simply matching legal rights to facts, to identifying and addressing unmet human needs.
The Journey to Becoming a Restorative Lawyer
My personal journey highlights the evolution of a restorative lawyer. I rely on the stories and lessons from my clients to describe this practice. Initially, like many in the legal field, I focused on exposing injustices and fighting zealously for my clients. However, through experiences of “heartbreak”—cases where legal victories didn’t bring true healing—I began to question the efficacy of the existing framework.
This exploration led me to restorative justice (RJ), therapeutic justice, and transformative-style mediation. These approaches offer alternative paths to resolving legal conflicts—focusing on harm and healing rather than just procedures and laws.
Becoming a Restorative Lawyer (Good Media Press 2025) is illustrated with photographs by Howard Zehr
Key Principles of a Restorative Lawyer
From Becoming a Restorative Lawyer by Brenda Waugh, several key principles emerge that guide restorative legal practice:
1. Focus on Harm and Healing
The core of restorative lawyering is addressing the harm caused by wrongdoing and facilitating healing for all parties—victims, offenders, and the community. This goes beyond legal remedies to consider emotional and relational impacts.
2. Client-Centered Approach
Restorative lawyers seek to understand the full narrative of their clients’ lives and the “untreated wounds” that shape them. Deep listening extends to clients, families, and witnesses, honoring the human experience beyond the legal facts of a case.
3. Agents of Transformation
Restorative lawyers view themselves not just as legal analysts or strategists, but as agents of transformation and healing—for both their clients and themselves.
4. Community-Oriented Practice
This approach recognizes that legal conflicts affect entire communities. Restorative lawyering invites community involvement to promote accountability and collective healing.
5. Beyond Trained Tunnel Vision
Following Nils Christie’s concept of “trained tunnel vision,” restorative lawyers learn to see beyond narrow legal frameworks and apply restorative principles creatively—even when formal programs aren’t available.
6. Self-Reflection and Growth
Restorative lawyering encourages continuous personal and professional reflection. Lawyers, too, experience “recurring wounds” from witnessing human suffering and benefit from restorative healing.
7. Building Relationships
At its heart, restorative practice fosters authentic and respectful relationships, replacing the “us vs. them” mentality typical in adversarial systems.
A New Practice of Law
Ultimately, becoming a restorative lawyer means creating a new practice of law—one that invites lawyers, clients, judges, and communities to support the lawyer’s role as a healer. It’s about finding shared values and allowing them to guide legal work, fostering a practice that nurtures healing for clients and practitioners alike.
This transformative approach offers legal professionals a way to find deeper meaning and satisfaction in their work—moving from a system that can compound suffering to one that actively promotes healing, growth, and justice. Learn more about the potential for the restorative lawyer in my book, Becoming a Restorative Lawyer. Join me in celebrating Restorative Justice Month with my book launch events in November 2025.