I recently found out that the leadership of the Tennessee Bar Association has recommended to the members of the Tennessee ABA delegation that they vote in favor of adopting the Uniform Law Commission's recommended new Uniform Collaborative Law Act. This development bodes well for the possible adoption of some legislation or court rules in Tennessee where collaborative law practice is in it's infancy. Right now there are two practice groups, one in Memphis and one in Nashville, both are trying to figure out the best ways to bring the process to fruition.

http://stjoenews.net/news/2009/nov/15/drug-court-weighs-criticism-success/

Excerpt:

For this four-part series, the News-Press interviewed judges, lawyers and participants involved with Buchanan County’s drug court to gauge whether NACDL’s criticisms are warranted at the local level. Dawn Williams served as an assistant prosecutor in Platte and Buchanan counties, as well as a public defender, before becoming a private defense attorney.

Hello,

I am a 3L at Northeastern University and have been involved in the local Restorative Justice community in Massachusetts.

I am looking to obtain grant funding to study Restorative Justice practices internationally once I graduate and subsequently pursue full time employment in the field.

Does anyone suggestions of grant sources?

Thank you!
Rebecca Greening
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2010
Northeastern University School of Law

The Resourceful Lawyer:
Inner Tools for an Ethical Practice

In this one day interactive CLE, you will learn tools and gain self awareness that will assist you in moving consistently from reaction to resourcefulness for a more effective and ethical legal practice. You will learn to:

• Connect to the higher purpose of your ethical legal practice, aligned with your values and passions
• Deal with stress and anxiety-–from emotional, physiological and neurological perspectives
• Be at choice by gaining self-awareness, new perspectives and skillful action from center

I'm a Legal Rebel (an ABA program for 50 legal innovators and changemakers)! Here is the profile:

http://www.legalrebels.com/posts/j._kim_wright_collaborator/

When you start from the premise that “All is One,” outer situations connect to inner realities. Having done therapeutic work to heal relationships with my family of origin, I married a man with traits similar to my mother. Our relationship brought out behaviors in me similar to behaviors of my father. My personality was similar to my husband’s father personality which “fit” his behavior resonating with that of his mother. We each had (and have) inner female and inner male energies to be integrated.

Commonway Tele-Seminar on 17 & 18 November, 2009 6-8 pm Pacific time

Many of us have done our own personal “shadow” work: courageously looking into those places where we do not live up to our own potential, when we fail our own standards.

Now, it’s time to take the next step: to look at our communities and our nation. This is not to DWELL on our past, but to RELEASE ourselves from its grip.

From Jessica Myers; Coordinator of the ISCT, Development Research and Health Law Fellowship; Hofstra Law School:

ACR is planning to have a Transformative Track at their conference in Chicago in September 2010. The Call for Proposal for 2010 opened at the Conference in Atlanta this fall and will close November 20, 2009.

More information is available on ACR's website at www.acrnet.org. On the home page, you will see the Call for Proposal link. As you complete the form, use the “Other” box for section 9 and write in “Conflict Transformation.”

Collecting more information for the ABA Book, this survey is about income.

A common fear for lawyers is that their income will drastically change if they adopt more peacemaking and healing approaches like collaborative law, therapeutic jurisprudence, and restorative justice.

As regular readers know, I was asked to write a book on Lawyers as Peacemakers for the American Bar Association. I've created a survey to collect some information. Please take a few minutes to help us.

Lawyers only: Please take a few minutes and click on the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Nvn5JJBlyeL6ZLvmzCE8xA_3d_3d

Thanks so much!

There is a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal today, October 31, 2009. The title is "The New Art of Alimony". It discusses the trend for ex-spouses (decades after the divorce) to go back to court asking for alimony. These are people who agreed not to have alimony at the time of divorce.

The article suggests this trend is fueled by the financial needs of aging baby boomers in their retirement years and by the current economic situation. The article also describes resulting legislative actions in a few states where citizens are concerned about this trend.

Warrior – Peacemaker
(Harmonizing Polarities – Part I)

By Theresa Beran Kulat

Spiritual teachings applied to the practice of law can lead to a more joy-filled and manageable Life. This article takes a fresh look at “opposites.” By altering our perspective of things that seem to be “at odds” we can harmonize them and achieve more satisfactory outcomes for ourselves and our clients.

Good news from the Center for Court Innovation! Congrats!

Dear Friend:

I’m writing to share some happy news. I just received word that the Center for Court Innovation has been named the winner of the 2009 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. The competition for this $100,000 prize, which is named for the influential management theorist, is fierce—more than 600 organizations across the country applied. Needless to say, we are deeply honored by the distinction.

Collaborative divorce financial professionals come with various credentials and have various reasons to be in this business. I will comment on the credentials in another blog entry. Right now, I want to talk about one of the various reasons to be in the business of divorce financial advice and how that relates to the disqualification.

I'm a part-time 2L looking to get my feet wet in the area of collaborative family law. Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about seeking such an internship for the summer (does not have to be paid) or know of any collaborative family lawyers willing to chat by phone or e-mail?

Thanks in advance!

Victoria Martin
vhmartin23@gmail.com