Conflict, Lawyers and PISLAP - pronounced Pie-Slap - join me for a talk!

Hello {{first_name}},

Tomorrow I'm giving a talk for PISLAP - which if you haven't heard of...you need to! That is TOMORROW, Wednesday 14 April

1pm Eastern Time

10am Pacific Time

19h00 in South Africa

It would be really nice to know some people are interested in what I have to say! It's zoom - you can always show your face, then turn off camera while you cook dinner and do the crossword.

TOPIC: Conflict as our greatest tool for transformation

I'm fascinated by the concept of conflict as our greatest tool for transformation. I believe conflict is not random or something to be avoided but that it's here to teach us something.
Viewed through this lens, the role of lawyers is to help clients navigate their way mindfully through conflict and where possible, help the client understand why they have created (usually unconsciously) that conflict in the first place.

To paraphrase the great father of Collaborative Law, Stu Webb,

"The lawyer’s role is to hold the vision of a future the clients can’t see yet."

This talk won’t be from an academic viewpoint although things like Integral theory inform my thinking. Rather, I’ll speak from my heart, my experience coaching lawyers and being a legal futurist and tell you some stories about my personal suffering as a result of conflict, and weave together different frameworks for thinking about this. My hope is to pave the way for a generative discussion on our personal and professional approaches to conflict and inspire you to change the way you view conflict.

I'll probably over-share, I tend do - and I've had some pretty shitty conflicts in my life - but they have turned out to be transformative and I would be overjoyed if you could also gain some good from the bad times.

WHO OR WHAT IS PIESLAP?

PISLAP is the Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics and it's run by some cool people who have speakers on all sorts of topics and stop us all sitting in our ivory towers and instead looking for our commonality to SOLVE PROBLEMS!

Their website says: The Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law, and Politics (PISLAP, pronounced pie-slap) is a nationwide network of lawyers, law professors, law students, legal workers, and others who are seeking to develop a new spiritually-informed approach to law and social change. We believe that human beings long to live in a world in which people can fully recognize and affirm each other's humanity and that law can help bring that world into being through new legal processes that foster empathy, compassion, and mutual understanding

SIDETRACK & UPDATE ON MY BEACH PLASTIC EXPERIENCE

Do you get exhausted by all the planet saving we need to do? I definitely do. I recently watched Seaspiracy on Netflix - and highly recommend it. My kid watched the first half but it's a bit hardcore after that. I'm realising the collapse of our oceans is not our grandchildren's problem: it's ours. We're talking 2030/ 2040. I'm planning to be around then and may even have embraced my grey hair by that time. Watch the documentary - it got some flak, but it's got stuff you need to know about. It will also save you money on your sushi bill.

For those who read my last mail when I spoke about cleaning up Fishhoek beach - as I was so distressed by the plastic. Well, I went back 2 days later with a big bag. I could barely find anything to pick up???? It was BIZARRE. Then I bumped into my fellow rubbish collector from that day, and she told me people had written to thank us on the Fishhoek Facebook page, and that others had then come to clean up, and someone had called Lakeside depot and they'd apparently sent a small team. Isn't that AMAZING? I was pretty astounded. It feels like the hour I spent feeling hopeless but trying to make a difference - maybe did? However watching Seaspiracy might undo all your good feelings about picking up trash. But keep doing it. Always take a spare bag to the beach for trash.

AMANDA LAMOND BIO - it went with the PISLAP mailer, so I'm copying that here too. 

I am a legal futurist, a lawyer coach and a channel. I run Awakening Lawyers to help lawyers who love the law but are disillusioned and disheartened by the way it’s practised, to re-imagine and redesign their lives so that they can practice in their own way, in their own time, and on their own terms. I believe the next generation of lawyers must be shown the sacred responsibility, the power and opportunity to change the world that comes with a law degree.
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I love working with lawyers at all stages of their awakening journey, especially those who are starting to see a new role for themselves as peacemakers, as justice warriors and as activists for social change. I work with my clients to deal with the challenges they face working within a restrictive and often conservative legal culture that promotes hiding your authentic self under a professional mask and suppressing both your own and your client’s emotions.
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I’ve worked as an attorney, a law lecturer, a director of a non-profit college for impoverished students, a facilitator of corporate leadership programs and an organizational development consultant. In all of them I’ve changed the status quo and pioneered new ways of thinking and operating. I am still fascinated by the legal system, but now I work on it, not in it. My tribe is the Integrative Law Movement, an umbrella term used by 1000’s of lawyers globally who are creating, designing and rethinking the legal system.
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In 2013 I started the Centre for Integrative Law, a consultancy for emergent thinking in the practice of law. I pioneered many initiatives in South Africa including the training of the first 50 lawyers in Collaborative Divorce; Neuro-literacy for Lawyers, and bringing various legal thought-leaders to South Africa. From 2016 to 2018 I ran WOLELA (Women Leading in Law) a national network supporting women lawyers to facilitate the emergence of a healthier legal system. Finding New Ways for Women to Lead in Law was WOLELA’s annual conference. My favourite testimonial: “to call that a conference doesn’t do it justice, it was more like a healing of the legal profession.” Now I'm teaching online programmes through Awakening Lawyers and will see where my soul takes me!

WHAT'S NEXT FOR AWAKENING LAWYERS?

I'm launching the Awakening Lawyers Student Mentorship Programme! Right now I'm recruiting Sponsoring Mentors, who sponsor a student to take part in a 3 month Integrative Legal Leadership Course and also mentor that student over the 3 months - 3 x online conversations. Currently being a mentor is by invitation only - but if you think you have what it takes to give a student a radically new outlook on the law - give me a shout! Sponsorship costs are USD $150 p/m x 3 months. For South African mentors it's R2000 p/m x 3 months. This is meant to equate to about 2 billable hours per month that you donate to support a student to have a completely different experience of what is possible for their careers. I'll send a mail about that soon - but please do get in touch if you read this and it grabs you.

See some of you online for my PISLAP guest appearance!