Update for 2023
The trauma-informed law book is available to order now at the below link! In March 2023, the book on trauma-informed lawyering was published. The full title is: "Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Lawyer Resilience and Healing", edited by Helgi Maki, Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum and J. Kim Wright (with about 40 amazing legal authors contributing). It was published by the American Bar Association (Practice Management Division). To order, click this link.
The book Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Lawyer Resilience and Healing by Helgi Maki, Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum and J. Kim Wright (as editors and authors, along with contributing authors) is currently in production for release by the American Bar Association (Practice Management Division) in spring 2023.
Here’s a short description:
As the world reels from pandemics, economic shocks, environmental crises and other urgent humanitarian needs, lawyers across practice areas must learn not only the skills of counseling and advocacy, but also of managing trauma—our own, and that of our clients. This book is a primer on trauma-informed lawyering, and a starting point for resilience and even healing.
And longer book overview:
As the world reels from pandemics, economic shocks, environmental crises and other urgent humanitarian needs, lawyers must learn not only the skills of counseling and advocacy but also of managing trauma—our own, and that of our clients. This book is a primer on trauma-informed lawyering for effective legal practice, and a starting point for resilience and even Healing.
Inside, you will find a diverse chorus of voices who courageously address the many intersections of trauma and law that are too often denied, ignored or avoided across practice areas. The focus is on dealing with the impact of trauma on lawyers and clients, courts and judges, legal education, and the legal system. We explore the difficult and triggering aspects of our work across practice areas from both an analytical and experiential perspective, providing insight, stories, guidance, and practices that promote a healthy balance of work and well-being.
Trauma-informed lawyering is a relational model for practicing law that acknowledges the presence of trauma and its impact on the legal system, responds to indicators of trauma with human needs in mind, and seeks to prevent re-traumatization. It adopts four core elements for working with clients, colleagues, students, and communities:
• Emotionally intelligent and psychologically informed approaches to legal work that often increase client satisfaction.
• Client-focused service design strategies that meet core stakeholder needs.
• Wellbeing supports that reflect the priorities in the ABA wellbeing pledge and related reports on lawyer wellbeing.
• Social impact including improving or providing support for access to justice, access to legal services, and legal outcomes.
As leaders, lawyers must learn to navigate the barriers created by trauma to ensure access to
justice and effective legal services for all. Trauma-informed Lawyering is at once inspiration, toolkit, and a guidebook for practicing law in a new world.
Update from 2020: Original book project description
Of the many things learned in 2020, a big one is our justice systems around the world are in dire need of deep improvement.
There needs to be a book on trauma-informed lawyering with input from real humans & authentic stories. So we’re part of a collaborative team creating one. It will be published by the ABA (Law Practice Management Section) in 2021. We’d love to hear from lawyers & other legal professionals so your experiences can be reflected in the book. We’re asking for your stories & views with a survey.
Please click on this survey link to participate: https://forms.gle/YsbwdwRCpTrR6DZb6
If you want more details about the book read on… We look forward to hearing from you!
A New Book on Trauma-Informed Lawyering
We’re part of a Book Team (with Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum & J. Kim Wright) curating a new book on trauma-informed lawyering to be published in 2021 by the American Bar Association (Law Practice Management Section), tentatively called "Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Lawyers in Practice".
We’re asking legal professionals to help us by answering some survey questions and, if you wish, sharing a story that illustrates a traumatic event or situation which you have experienced in the legal profession. There are many possible examples: handling a gruesome case, having lives depending on you, an unexpected situation in court.....we don't want to limit or judge what is traumatic. That is actually part of the point of the survey, to help us see what lawyers experience. Click on the Google Forms link below to participate in the survey. (You can choose to fill out the survey anonymously or with your details added, and you can review the form before you submit.) Questions about the survey can be sent to traumainformedlaw@gmail.com
This survey and stories will help the Book Team understand how lawyers, their clients and their practices are affected by trauma, and how the legal profession can be more aware of and responsive to trauma. We'll use them to help us focus our content to be most helpful. (We will be coming back later to ask for substantive contributions to the book, based on the stories and survey results.)
The Trauma-Informed Lawyering Book Survey:
You can participate in the trauma-informed lawyering book survey at this link: https://forms.gle/YsbwdwRCpTrR6DZb6
What the Book Team is looking for:
We are looking for a wide variety of real life stories from diverse members of the legal community to enrich the personal & professional context for substantive information in our book.
For the purposes of this survey, trauma is a state of being where a person's normal coping skills are overwhelmed. It can look like fight/flight/freeze. It can show up in many ways that can affect lawyer-client relationships, memory, narrative and more. The effects of trauma can be physical, mental, emotional and more. It can affect a person's sense of meaning, values, purpose or sense of spirituality. Trauma does not need to arise from a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or an other medicalized approach to impact lawyers, clients or others. Trauma can affect people no matter how it is categorized. Ultimately, trauma is a human response to an overwhelming situation.
We will be collecting stories and survey results in stages with quick turnarounds. It would be most helpful if you can share a story or answer the survey early in the process. Stories need not be long (better if they are short!) and they don't need to be literary. The first batch of answers will be reviewed on January 5, then more on the 8th. We'll refine the process later.
*A special thanks to Brooke Deratany Goldfarb, who suggested that an entire book was needed and without whom this book would not exist*
THANK YOU FROM THE BOOK TEAM:
Marjorie Florestal, Helgi Maki, Myrna McCallum & J. Kim Wright