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