Holistic Lawyer
Fuel Your Spark and Engage Your Full Potential
Coming this March from Morgan James Publishing: a leading-edge new book entitled Fuel the Spark: 5 Guiding Values for Success in Law School & Beyond. Written by lawyer Kevin E. Houchin for law students, Fuel the Spark actually applies to everyone whose job involves competition, focused attention, and intellect. Now available for preorder from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. From the Amazon prod...
Read more...Economic Reform Based on Compassion and Caring
Thanks to the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers, I was recently made aware of a wonderful webcast of a timely radio show by lawyer-turned-peacemaker Doug Noll. His guest on December 4, 2008, was Dr. Riane Eisler—president of the Center for Partnership Studies and author of the international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade. In this internet radio talk show, Doug Noll and Dr. Eisler d...
Read more...Keeping the Passion Strong
Are you in law school? Or maybe just thinking about it? Do you know someone who would be a great lawyer, and you think they should take the plunge and follow their dream of going to law school? Check out Kevin Houchin's new book, Fuel the Spark: 5 Guiding Values for Success in Law School and Beyond. To quote Joseph P. Tomain, Dean Emeritus and Wilber & Helen Ziegler Professor of Law at th...
Read more...Who Are My Ideal Clients?
I am a small business and real estate lawyer and mediator. I have been doing this kind of work for 28 years now. I handle contracts and contract-based disputes really well. I consider myself a Transformational Lawyer, which means I help my clients to transform their legal problems into opportunities for personal growth and positive change. I call what I do a Coach Approach to the Practice of Law. ...
Read more...Eight Possibilities
The coach-approach lawyer invites the client to consider the possibility that: • The client is always free to chose between alternatives and, in fact, chooses constantly, though mostly subconsciously. • The life the client lives is largely the result of the choices that the client makes. • There are advantages to be derived from making conscious choices, rather than subconscious ones. • Choosing o...
Read more...Ten Distinctions
When a lawyer applies a coach approach to the practice of law, the lawyer works collaboratively with the lawyer’s clients to assist them in transforming their legal problems into opportunities for positive change and spiritual growth. The coach-approach lawyer achieves these goals by engaging the client in profound conversations about choice and the freedom to choose the client’s own interpretatio...
Read more...Forgiveness
I've been enjoying a series of 52 daily emails called With Forgiveness. Click here to sign up. Forgiveness is an interesting concept for me. One of the beliefs I have chosen for myself is that forgiveness may not be enough to create true peace; love and gratitude can take you farther. That is to say loving others and yourself unconditionally and being grateful for everything that happens in ...
Read more...Life and Law
Here is a video of an interview that I gave to Cutting Edge Law Magazine at the IAHL Conference that took place in Plymouth, Michigan, May 15-18, 2008. Click here to watch Part 1. Click here to watch Part 2. Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
Read more...Spirit of the Law
Another article has come to my attention through the member mailing list of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers. "Spirit of the Law" appeared in the March edition of Plaintiff magazine, and was written by Pat Sullivan, who works with Spirit at Work, an organization with the mission of supporting global transformation by integrating spirituality and the workplace.. Click here ...
Read more...Holistic Law Article Published in Michigan Bar Journal
The Michigan Bar Journal published an informative article about holistic law written by Ruth L. Rickard in the June 2008 issue. Click here to read "Authentic Lawyering: Engaging Your Head and Your Heart." Warm thanks to Tim Batdorf of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers for bringing it to my attention on the member mailing list.
Read more...What’s a Thursday Sandwich?
What’s a Thursday Sandwich? When my clients come to me worried about how hard they are struggling, worried about the future, worried about achieving their goals, and worried about how and when they will achieve them, I have a tendency to talk to them about what I have come to call a Thursday Sandwich. To understand what a Thursday Sandwich is, you will have to be familiar with Deepak Chopra’s 7 Sp...
Read more...Problem vs. Challenge vs. Opportunity
The Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary that sits on my desk in my office defines “problem” as a “difficult situation, matter or person.” “Challenge” is defined as “an invitation to compete in a fight, contest, or competition.” And “opportunity” is defined as “a chance, especially one that offers some kind of advantage.” It also says that an opportunity is a combination of “favorable” circumstanc...
Read more...What’s the Difference Between Distress and Eustress?
I recently read a great new book by Timothy Ferriss, called The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Work Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Crown Publishers 2007). Here’s the link to Tim’s website. Tim has a lot of interesting things to say, but one thing that really struck me was the following observation entitled “Distress is Bad, Eustress is Good.” “Unbeknownst to most fun-loving bipeds, not all str...
Read more...Holistic Law in the News
This article was brought to my attention by a member of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers. I am inspired to share this great interview about holistic law; it appeared in the Memphis Daily News on May 8, 2008. Here is the story online: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=36981 Holland Uses Holistic Law To Solve Problems Peacefully REBEKAH HEARN | The Daily Ne...
Read more...Saying Yes to Jean-Pierre LeBlanc
Every day I make it a habit to focus on something that I am really grateful for. Today the subject of my focus is my life coach, mentor, and best friend: Jean-Pierre LeBlanc. I met Jean-Pierre in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California on New Year’s Eve 2002. His family and my family were staying at the same resort and they accepted our invitation to attend the same New Year’s Eve celebration. Our familie...
Read more...Playing the Human Game: Part Three
Rule Number Three: Choose to believe that you are 100% responsible for your current situation, no matter what it is. If each player is 100% responsible for the situation in which they find themselves, then they have the maximum amount of power possible to transform that situation into a better one. They are not going to wait passively for someone else to fix their life for them. With responsibilit...
Read more...Playing the Human Game: Part Two
Rule Number Two: Choose to believe that everyone does the best they possibly can, given the resources they think are available to them. If the past is perfect and everyone who acted in the past did the best he or she possibly could in the past, then the player does not have a reason for regrets, for anger, for guilt, or for resentment. The player has no reason to cling to any need to make other pe...
Read more...Playing the Human Game: Part One
My life seems to work better when I think of it as a game: the Human Game of Being. I have also discovered that my clients’ legal problems tend to get resolved more easily—with better results and less stress—when they agree to play the Human Game with me. Here is how we play. I start out by asking them a question: Do you believe that you can change the past?Then I sit back and wait for a response....
Read more...Choice and the Meaning of Life
Approximately 15 years ago shortly after my infant daughter, Andrea, died, I agreed to participate in a three-day workshop called the Forum, offered by Landmark Education (www.landmarkeducation.com). I took the course because I wanted to sort out the meaning of my daughter’s short life and of her death. I was grieving, depressed, and troubled, and willing to try anything to get myself unstuck. I l...
Read more...Choosing Beliefs
Wikipedia defines “choice” as follows: Choice consists of the mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them for action. Some simple examples include deciding whether to get up in the morning or go back to sleep and selecting a given route to make a journey across a country. More complex examples (often decisions that aff...
Read more...The Power of the Platinum Rule
Everybody knows what the Golden Rule is. No, not that Golden Rule; this one: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Professor Harry J. Gensler teaches in the philosophy department of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Golden Rule at the University of Michigan 30 years ago. Here is his short essay on the Golden Rule taken from his web...
Read more...The Power of Clear Communication
I like to tell my clients there are 4 ways to communicate: • You can be PASSIVE, • You can be PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE, • You can be AGGRESSIVE, or • You can be ASSERTIVE. In my opinion, ONLY ONE WAY WORKS! Wikipedia defines passive as "the opposite of active." We have all met passive people. Initially, they seem quite pleasant, as they agree with practically everything you say. They seem to j...
Read more...What Is Holistic Law?
Posted with permission from the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers (IAHL): Holistic law is hard to define. It often seems more a process than a particular method of practicing law. However, there seem to be some common threads among holistic lawyers, which may lead to a practical definition of holistic law. IAHL weaves these threads together and finds that many of its members are comm...
Read more...Transformational Lawyer
I like to think of myself as a “transformational lawyer,” one who teaches his clients to transform their legal problems into opportunities for personal growth and positive change. I do that by inviting them to take 100% responsibility for their lives (to use a Jack Canfield expression). I ask my clients to choose to believe that the legal situation that they find themselves in is the result of cho...
Read more...Peacemaking Attorney
“What is a peacemaking attorney?” When asked that question, I am drawn to my own personal experience as an attorney. When I started practicing law some 27 years ago, I thought of myself as a modern-day gunslinger or “hired gun.” As a hired gun, I was using the law either to force someone to do what my client wanted that person to do, or I was protecting my client from being forced to do something ...
Read more...A Lawyer’s Fiduciary Duty
A coach approach to the practice of law works, consistently delivering solutions to clients’ legal problems in less time, with less stress and with superior bottom-line results to those achieved by more traditional methods of legal practice. The question then arises: is it the lawyer’s fiduciary duty to the client to attempt to apply a coach approach to the client’s legal problems before resorting...
Read more...Lawyer or Coach? Both!
During my legal career, I have made a number of observations regarding the predominant legal system that is in use in the United States today. Regardless of the legal setting, it has been my experience that, typically, the participants, (principals and advocates alike), approach the legal process from the perspective that they need to dominate the other parties in order to avoid being dominated th...
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