The following people have generously volunteered their time, opinions, and expertise as Advisors to The Renaissance Lawyer Society.
J. Kim Wright, J.D., Founder and former Chairman of the RLS Board, now serves as a member of the Board of Advisors. Kim wears many hats. She is Managing Attorney of Healers of Conflicts Law & Conflict Resolution Center (http://healersofconflicts.com) in Asheville, North Carolina, a law firm which exemplifies what is possible in the legal profession. She is co-founder of a group of collaborative professionals in Western North Carolina, www.collablaw.org. Kim is developing a new magazine the movement, see www.cuttingedgelaw.com. She is Associate Director of the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program Information and Resource Center, www.vorp.com. She is also a lawyer's coach (www.consciouscoach.com) and consultant (www.jkimwright.com) who is an international speaker, trainer, and writer on a new model for the legal profession. She serves on the Board of Counselors for the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers and is a founding member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals Task Force on Inclusivity, Diversity and Accessibility.
Kim was a business owner and mother of seven children when she returned to law school at age 29. After passing both the Georgia and Florida bar exams, she joined the North Carolina Bar in 1994 and began practicing law in the traditional legal system. After enthusiastically winning her first custody trial and crushing the other side, she noticed that the family still had a lot of unresolved problems. Litigation did not resolve their conflict, it actually made it a lot worse, and her client kept calling her, wanting to ease the pain. The long hours, the brilliant trial techniques, and legal expertise didn’t cure the problem the client brought to her in the first place. It was frustrating for Kim and she was tempted to become cynical and to give up on ever making a difference. She questioned whether she should practice law at all. Instead, Kim began to investigate ways to work with clients that were innovative and focused on healing the pain and chaos of divorce. As she explored innovative approaches, she took them into her own law practice and applied them with her clients. From 1995 to 2000, she experimented with the approaches in her practice in Graham, NC, a small town in central North Carolina. Using a life-purpose coach, she created The Divorce and Family Law Center, a comprehensive law practice providing for all the needs of clients going through divorce: legal representation, social work, coaching, counseling, mediation, and resources for divorcing clients and toe community.
As her practice evolved, she began to see that her clients were much more empowered and she was making the difference that she always wanted to make, resolving problems, easing pain, and helping people. She actually liked to practice law! She even worked less hours and made more money. Clients welcomed the new approaches; even the clients who initially came in looking for revenge shifted when they were offered the opportunity to actually resolve their situations. She began to see herself as a peace-maker and began to imagine a legal profession where all lawyers saw themselves as peacemakers, healers, and problem-solvers.
As she met and worked with other lawyers who were committed to these approaches, she discovered that they were useful in areas that were not family-related, that the same principles could be used in corporate law or real estate or any other legal context. In 2000, when she relocated to Oregon, she made the decision to focus her energies on sharing the lessons from her law practice into a new coaching practice, working with other lawyers to transform their practices, creating a new model and future for the legal profession, creating a new context of lawyers as peacemakers, healers, and problem-solvers. Discovering many like-minded lawyers, she founded Renaissance Lawyer in 2000. Kim is the primary author of this web site.
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Dolly M. Garlo, R.N., J.D., P.C.C., is one of the founding board members of The Renaissance Lawyer Society and an active participant in the Board of Advisors. Dolly is licensed in Utah and Texas and has had a general civil law practice with an emphasis on health care regulatory law and litigation for 15 years. In the past 7 of those years, she ran her own firm with a consciously collaborative environment in which all staff, from the attorneys to the file room employees participated in firm operations and planning, and openly expressed mutual respect for one another and support for each other’s individual growth. She is a trained Mediator and has conducted numerous trainings for health care groups on legal issues affecting their work, and has worked in the area of individual treatment decision-making and end of life care since 1979. In 1999, she formed a law partnership (www.GarloWard.com ) and coached her partner to carry on the management of the law firm environment, allowing it to further grow and prosper with the same foundational principles. This allowed her to develop Thrive!! Coaching, Consulting & Training (www.AllThrive.com.)She has attained the designation Profession Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation. Dolly can be reached at dmgarlo@AllThrive.com .
Deborah Slye Miller, J.D. was one of the first members of the Board of Advisors and has provided guidance and counsel for RLS for many years. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and a practicing family lawyer. She is the former managing attorney of Miller, Shelton & Pace in Dallas and recently left to start her own firm. She has two sons, one who works as staff support in her office and one who lives in Maui, HI. Her life’s focus is to be used as a tool for healing through the practice of law. Because most of her practice is in the area of family law, her clients are in the process of a major life transition, affecting all areas of their life. Her goal is to assist them through the legal process, while being aware of opportunities for emotional and spiritual growth through the process. She is also committed to being a part of the transformation of the way law is taught and practiced, recognizing the high rate of substance abuse and depression within the profession, and seeking ways to provide support to attorneys who want to find joy, satisfaction and meaning in their practice of law. She also enjoy speaking to groups about the transformation of the legal profession. Debbie is the co-founder of the Collaborative Family Law Group of Dallas, a trained mediator, former board member and executive committee member of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers, the Dallas Women Lawyer’s Association. She is active in her state and local bar. She is on the fee dispute committee, speakers committee, peer assistance committee, and grievance committee.
Susan Daicoff, J.D. LLM, MS was also an original member and advisor for RLS. Her work inspired much of the content of this site and has been the core of several articles written about the movement. Professor Susan Daicoff teaches at Florida Coastal School of Law. She spent four years as a law professor at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio before permanently joining the FCSL faculty. Professor Daicoff practiced corporate, securities, and tax law in Orlando and Tampa before joining legal academia in 1995. She graduated with honors from the University of Florida College of Law in 1983 and earned her LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law in 1985. She also holds a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Florida and an M.S. in clinical psychology from the University of Central Florida. She worked as a psychotherapist for two years in the early 1990's, primarily in the areas of adult trauma and substance abuse. Professor Daicoff has been researching and writing about the legal profession, professionalism, lawyer personality, and lawyer satisfaction and well-being for over five years. She has published four articles on the topic, lectured extensively on it, and has a book and a book chapter currently in press. Based on this work, her current research interests encompass a new movement within the law, "comprehensive law," which is comprised of many seemingly disparate recent developments designed to make the law more humane, protective of human relationships and community, positive, beneficial, and personally optimal. For more information, please feel free to contact her at sdaicoff@fcsl.edu .
Stewart Levine is also a pioneer in the movement. He is the founder of ResolutionWorks, a consulting and training organization dedicated to providing skills and ways of thinking people will need to thrive in the next millennium. He spent ten years practicing law before becoming an award winning marketing executive at AT&T where he was recognized as a pioneer "intrapreneur." He uses his approach to form teams and joint ventures in a variety of situations. Companies he has worked for, in the US and abroad include American Express; Chevron; ConAgra; Deloitte & Touche; EDS; General Motors; Oracle; Safeco; University of San Francisco; U.S.Depts. of Agriculture and the Army. He worked with organizations in the areas of moving from a technical star to managing others; self-directed work teams; overcoming negativity; conflict resolution; coping with stress and anger; and collaboration. He was recently named one of the "Trend Setters" in the legal profession by Law Practice Management Magazine. His book "Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict into Collaboration" (Berrett-Koehler 1998) was an Executive Book Club Selection; Featured by Executive Book Summaries; named one of the 30 Best Business Books of 1998; endorsed by Dr. Stephen Covey; featured in "The Futurist" magazine and called "a must read" by the American Bar Association Law Practice Management Magazine. He is the current Chair of both the Visioning Task Force and the Law Practice Division of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association. He is currently working on "The Book of Agreement." Information: www.ResolutionWorks.org.
Steven Keeva may have started it all with his 1999 book, Transforming Practices, Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life. In addition to being a trusted advisor of RLS, he is a senior editor at the ABA Journal, the most widely read legal publication in the world. In addition to his advisory role, he has spoken to our teleclasses about the transformation of legal practices.
Dirk Metzger is a founding advisor of RLS who is a holistic lawyer and coach. Dirk obtained his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He was a partner at Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye until 1980, then taught at Cal Western Law School for two years. There, he established a course along the lines called the Lawyering Process based on the Becoming a Lawyer text. He went back into private practice as a solo from 1980 to about 1996 before again returning to teaching seminars, speaking and writing. He later discovered coaching which he says "was and is a nice fit." His recent practice was in commercial litigation where he "fought with the heavyweights." Now, he spends most of his time arbitrating for the American Arbitration Association and National Association of Securities Dealers. He is adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership. Mr. Metzger is in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers of Martindale-Hubbell.
Bonita Yoder practiced holistic law in Lawrence, Kansas for over twenty years. She is licensed in both Kansas and Colorado. Now transitioning out of practicing law full-time, she is a true renaissance woman! Bonita is licensed in real estate and has training in coaching, hakomi (body centered therapy), and many approaches to spirituality. She is a comedienne, ventriloquist, and host of a cable television program on spiritual matters. She is a member of the board of counselors of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers and has served on many boards during her career. Her recent book is called The Heart and Soul of Real Estate: A Spiritual Path to Abundance.
Cheryl Stephens, a California native now living in Vancouver Canada, practiced law in British Columbia after UBC Law School. Cheryl was a member of the founding leadership circle and founding board of Renaissance Lawyer Society and remains an important member of our advisory board. Cheryl entered the field of legal education working on curriculum design and teaching paralegals at the community college level, on public legal education for the Canadian Bar Assoc. and Department of Justice Canada and other organizations, and designed legal writing training for lawyers with the Continuing Legal Education Society's Plain Language Project. She worked as a consultant in legal training, communication, and marketing from 1990 through 2000. Cheryl has trained as a coach with the both Coaches Training Institute and the Vancouver Community College Leadership Coaching Program. She has also trained as a peer coach with the B.C. Lawyers Assistance Program where she is a volunteer. Cheryl volunteered with the BC Branch Canadian Bar Association for ten years on projects related to public legal education, client literacy, client relations and client communications including plain language drafting. (See links to plain language sites on Links page.) Cheryl is currently the Secretary of the BC Branch and the Secretary-Treasurer of the National Law Practice Management Sections of the Canadian Bar Association. She also co-chairs the ABA LPM Section's I-group on Work-Life Excellence with Pat Sullivan.
In addition to individual lawyer coaching, Cheryl is interested in organizing workshops, teleclasses, retreats, and group training in communication and interpersonal skills.
Carolyn Hansen, J.D., M.I.C.L, is an advisor and was a co-creator, incorporator and the first Treasurer of Renaissance Lawyer Society. Licensed in Wisconsin, New York, and before the US Supreme Court, she served for 14 years as in-house counsel for major US corporations (Johnson’s Wax, Schering-Plough Corp., Ralston Purina Co.), then for almost 12 years had her own law advisory firm in Taiwan. For the past three years she has been living in the Hudson Valley, New York. Also a trained mediator, her law work includes a strong focus on resolving or avoiding misunderstandings between her clients and others, especially cross cultural issues. For the past decade, she has combined her law practice with active promotion of sustainable development. A pioneer in bringing that concept to Taiwan, she founded its national business council for sustainable development and created and chaired Earthplace, a membership organization that also promoted sustainable development. As the Taiwan agent for Worldwatch Institute she launched its principle books in Chinese. A recipient of awards for her academic, law and non-profit work, she has published articles and lectured on the American, European, and Taiwanese legal systems, sustainable development and the transformation of the practice of law. She currently lives in the Hudson Valley where she practices law and serves in leadership roles in business and non-profit organizations. She practices Chan (Zen) meditation and in June 2003 will graduate from the four-year Barbara Brennan School of Healing. Carolyn can be reached at AttyHansen@earthlink.net
Pat Sullivan, M.A., our Director of Integrity, Purpose, and Joy, is principal of Visionary Resources and formerly a columnist on meaningful work for the San Francisco Chronicle. Pat has worked for lawyers for over twenty years, and much of her writing is inspired by lawyers. Pat has an M.A. in spirituality and psychology, and she has served as a contributing editor to Spirit at Work newsletter. She frequently leads workshops on Vision, Wisdom, Turning Stress and Burnout into Energy and Insight, and Meaningful Work. MCLE credit is available for many of her workshops in California. For many articles written by Pat, go to our Poetry and Articles section.
Jennifer Tull is a former board member and former Secretary for Renaissance Lawyer Society. She practices collaborative family law in Austin, Texas, and leads retreats for women in transition. The following is an excerpt from Jennifer's web site:During nearly 20 years as a family lawyer in Austin, Texas, I have represented hundreds of women who come to me in the worst hour of their lives. They felt frightened that they would not be able to support their families ... angry that commitments were broken and trust was destroyed ... guilty that they couldn't protect their children from sadness and injury. As their lawyer I did what I could inside the legal system. Too many times I found myself saying, "There's nothing more I can do for you. The law doesn't provide any other remedies.
I felt frustrated that I couldn't give women what they really needed - pain relief. We usher people into our offices for the first time when their relationship has fallen apart. When we send them out for the last time, we have gotten them through the crisis superficially, but they are not necessarily any better off than they were when we first met. Emotionally, spiritually, and physically, they are often devastated and they are struggling to do whatever it takes to survive from one day to the next. Eventually, the struggle gives way to resignation that forms a hard outer shell to protect them from life's tragedies.
Jennifer's response was to create a healing retreat for women going through divorce, Ariadne's Thread. [See the web site at www.aspaforthesoul.com ]. Kim Wright attended the retreat earlier this year and said the following: "The retreat was magical. It was a powerful and healing experience for me personally and it really gave me a foundation from which to resolve my own divorce peacefully. As a family lawyer, it is what I would wish all my clients had available. The emotional and spiritual components of the divorce were so thoroughly addressed, that the legal issues were able to fall easily into place."
A practicing attorney for over 20 years, Constance d'Angelis is a published writer and public speaker on integrity and ethical issues. She is the visionary and creator of Loving Lawsuits - a new methodology to transform the adversarial nature of the legal system and replace it with non-invasive solutions that heal the source of conflict. She is a new breed of spiritual evolutionists who believes by integrating mind/body/spirit principles into the legal process, transformations will occur that heal and leave no casualties. She is dedicated to this transformation as a contribution to mankind’s personal growth, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Constance has developed a series of seven CDs and practical workbooks to educate people on the process of transforming conflict into an opportunity for growth and success through a new, healing empowerment process.
Constance has chaired numerous arbitrational panels for the NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers). She is a faculty member of University at Sea. Her avocation is vibrational healing and performing original scores of Bisosome Vibrational Music. She is a nationally certified, licensed LMT and Reiki Master.Neil Olson JD CPCC, former vice president of RLS, is an attorney and professional coach who lives and works in San Francisco. Neil has been a practicing attorney in San Francisco since 1985. His legal experience led him down the path of associate and partner in a financial district civil litigation law firm. Neil served on several of the firm’s management committees including the firm’s recruiting, hiring and executive committees. In 1997 Neil founded his own law practice in San Francisco and in 1998 completed the professional coaching certification program at the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California. Neil has been coaching lawyers since 1998 and recently founded InAccord, a coaching business committed to the professional development and personal satisfaction of lawyers. Neil completed CTI’s advanced leadership training program in 2000 and has taught skills to other coaches wanting to coach lawyers. Neil coaches lawyers interested in taking charge of their careers. His approach is coactive and integrated. Whether it is making partner, changing law firms, creating one’s own firm or transitioning out of the practice of law, Neil brings focus, commitment and balance to the lives of his clients through conscious planning, values clarification, deliberate commitment and follow-through. Neil’s clients work on building their ‘books’ of business while tending to all aspects of their lives—both professional and personal. The result is satisfaction in service to the law.
Cindy Lenoff Zatzman is an attorney, admitted to the practice of law in Florida since October 1995. For seven years, she concentrated her practical experience in the ethics area, but also explored other areas of the law. Influenced largely by her ethics experience, she has investigated many alternatives to litigation practice, including holistic law practice, therapeutic jurisprudence, and collaborative family law practice. Her belief that the practice of law can serve as a healing art, helping people resolve their differences through alternatives to litigation, has led to her zealous promotion of educational opportunities for members of both the legal profession and the general population. She currently operates a limited law practice while pursuing a career as a public speaker. Ultimately, she is determined to serve as an educator, a developer and a promoter of peace-making practices.