About Us: The People
Our publisher and managing editor, J. Kim Wright J.D., is a pioneer in the field of law as a healing profession. A graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, she passed the North Carolina Bar in 1994, her third bar exam and the only membership that she currently maintains. Still practicing law part-time, she understands the challenges and rewards of a new paradigm of legal practice based upon peacemaking, problem-solving, and healing conflict. She was the original founder of the Renaissance Lawyer Society, a non-profit organization of lawyers “supporting legal transformation and innovation”.
Since 1999, she has been speaking, writing, and interacting with lawyers about this new paradigm of law. She is widely recognized as one of the leaders defining and guiding the movement. In her work, she has met thousands of lawyers and has developed meaningful connections with key leaders who are influential with thousands of other lawyers. She has consulted with media - mainstream, professional and alternative. After years of working in the field, she identified the need for a central information resource and “virtual community center”. She began development of CuttingEdgeLaw.com in November of 2004.
CuttingEdgeLaw.com brings her commitment to a new paradigm of law together with years of study of transformational technology, social change, conflict resolution, socially responsible business, human dynamics, neuroscience, and learning theory and provides a vehicle for her self expression. Kim also has taught as adjunct faculty of her alma mater, Warren Wilson College, in Asheville where she majored in Business Management and International Studies. Currently, she is traveling around the country, interviewing lawyers for CuttingEdgeLaw.com.
Our videographer, Michael Matthews, brings a broad skill-set and unique perspective. Majoring in philosophy and psychology at East Carolina University, he has always been curious about people and the world. After college he worked for a year and a half as a resident counselor at a Crisis Intervention Center before launching a three year adventure of hiking/hitchhiking around the US, and Canada, exploring different cultures and the wonders of the Natural World. He spent extensive periods of time living with Nature. He actually settled down and raised a family for a few years too - his daughter, Amanda, is his pride and joy.
Michael taught primitive survival skills to young people and adults for more than a decade, using the powerful metaphors of living with Nature to empower people in new ways. Along the way he added Energy Healing, Hypnotherapy, and Body Work to his self expression. His love of travel and exploring different cultures has taken him around the world. Michael has touched many lives with his teaching and healing wisdom.
And, he has always had his camera with him. He expanded his artistic range beyond still photography into Videography while working on a documentary short about Chiapas, Mexico which was shown at the first Asheville Film Festival. Michael found that he loved video production, editing, and the power of that medium to tell stories that impact people in positive ways. In late 2007, in a conversation with Kim, he mentioned that if he could do anything he wanted to do, he would travel and make a documentary about people making a difference. Since Kim had been planning the world tour, one thing led to another and it became apparent that Michael was the perfect videographer for the job.
We are joined by a legion of supporters – from our writers and editors to Lisa who helped with paralegal duties in Kim’s absence to Woody & Jim, Linton, Ryan, Brian, Demian, our Drupal wizards; two Steves and Nick who are also computer guys, and Jennifer L., our able chief editor who is now off to work on her graduate degree in non-fiction creative writing.
