Practicing Holistic, Humanistic Law
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About
This Course
Practicing law can be fulfilling, humanistic, and effective. The Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law, and Politics (PISLAP; https://www.spiritlawpolitics.org/) spreads healing models of law practice that move beyond the highly stressful traditional format—a narrow analytic focus on legal issues with an adversarial approach to other parties.
PISLAP promotes attending to clients' emotional, spiritual, and physical needs while addressing their legal problems. This program will introduce lawyers to integrative practices: holistic criminal practice, restorative justice, and treatment courts. The faculty will discuss how the shared values and tools of the integrative approach can make any kind of law practice more effective and meaningful.
PISLAP aims to improve lawyers' well-being. This program will also offer lawyers an experience with contemplative practice, which more and more lawyers find helps them remain calm, centered, and attuned to their clients amid a busy practice.
This program is suitable for law students and practicing lawyers with any level of experience.
Learning Objectives
- Review the principal models of holistic and humanistic law practice
- Recognize common themes and principles that link the growing number of integrative techniques
- Evaluate and experience contemplative practice and its benefits
- Analyze better results from addressing a client’s emotional and spiritual needs in addition to legal ones
- Assess and appreciate the personal benefits to lawyers who practice in a humanistic fashion in conformity with their values
- Explore current developments in law practice with themes that appear in other spheres of society, such as connections between all people, the importance of consciousness in social change, and creating social structures that meet people's needs
Production Date: 1/14/2025 | Closed captioning (CC) available
About the Presenters
Douglas Ammar, Esq.
Georgia Justice Project
Practice Area: Criminal Law (+ 1 other areas)
Doug has been the executive director of the Georgia Justice Project since 1995 and a volunteer and staff attorney there from its opening in 1986. Originally from Charleston, West Virginia, Doug earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Davidson College in 1984, and then a law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1989.Doug has received numerous awards for his leading voice in criminal justice reform and reentry, including but not limited to: Georgia Legislative Black Caucus Heritage Dinner 2022 Awardee; Nonprofit Times 2019 Power & Influence Top 50; Urban League or Greater Atlanta’s Man of Empowerment & Distinction; Davidson’s ...
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Bruce Peterson, Esq.
University of Minnesota Law School
Practice Area: Criminal Law
Bruce Peterson was a District Court Judge from 1999 until his retirement in May, 2019, sitting in Hennepin County, Minnesota, which includes Minneapolis and its suburbs. From 2006 to 2008 he was the presiding judge of Hennepin County Family Court. From 2008 to 2013 he initiated and presided over Co-Parent Court, offering supportive co-parenting services to low income, unmarried parents establishing paternity. From 2013 to 2016 he presided over the Hennepin County Drug Court and specialized calendars for people who are homeless and women charged with prostitution.Judge Peterson was a 1972 graduate of Cornell University, a 1978 graduate of Yale ...
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Jonathan Scharrer, Esq.
University of Wisconsin Law School
Practice Area: Criminal Law (+ 1 other areas)
Jonathan Scharrer is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Restorative Justice Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has extensive experience as a facilitator of restorative justice (RJ) dialogues in sensitive and violent crimes and as a trainer in a variety of RJ practices. His work has been featured on both 60 Minutes and CNN's The Redemption Project. Jonathan is also active in examining criminal legal policy and has assisted with drafting proposed RJ legislation and the design and implementation of multiple RJ diversion programs. He served as a member of the Advisory Council for the ...
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Kim Wright, Esq.
Clinical professor and Senior Fellow at Quinnipiac School of Law Center on Dispute Resolution; Director, Integrative Law Center
Practice Area: Alternative Dispute Resolution (+ 1 other areas)
Never one to back down from a challenge, Kim started law school as the mother of seven children while running the family taxi business. Her experiences in law school led her to eschew the practice of law. Instead, after law school, she was the director of a domestic violence agency and pursued other nonprofit work. Then, she met a lawyer who offered a different possibility for what it meant to be a lawyer: he shared that he saw his role as a peacemaker and that as a divorce lawyer, his job was to help clients learn to get along so they could raise ...
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Rhonda Magee, Esq.
Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco
Practice Area: Administrative (+ 1 other areas)
Rhonda is a Professor Emeritus, and founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco. Professor Magee is a leading mindfulness teacher and practice innovator with a focus on applying mindfulness to the most complex challenges of our times. She is an internationally-recognized teacher, guide and mentor focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law, and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis, and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act, and live better together in a rapidly changing world.For ...
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