the making of
"the restorative lawyer"
My story begins with my broken heart. In 1987, entered the practice of law to work for justice, to solve problems, to help other people to have a better life. But as I progressed through law school, and eventually into the practice of law I often felt like I was doing everything I could to improve the lives of my clients. But despite my best efforts, I failed. Don't get me wrong, I won many cases, but my clients were still miserable. And time after time, as I wanted the terrible process that the legal proceedings involved, I felt my own heart breaking, aching, knowing that things had to be better.
In 2007, I began the Master's Program at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peace. I found a new way of looking at not just criminal wrongdoing, but all legal problems: restorative justice. Instead of competition, I cultivated collaboration. Instead of looking at "cases" as involving "parties" and "fact patterns" and "theories of the case" I learned to see people with problems that created needs that I could help with. Instead of finding the single explanation, "the truth" I discovered multiple narratives that challenged me into finding ways that they could be woven together all the while respecting everyone and their experiences. And in so doing, I found the healing. And to my surprise the healing that I found was not only for my clients, but for myself.
Today, I have a thriving legal and mediation practice where I bring my newly cultivated skills and outlook to legal matters and to community conflicts. I am in the process of finishing a manuscript that outline my practice: in theory and in actual day to day activities. I look forward to sharing this new of being both a good lawyer and a happy lawyer with my colleagues and friends.