Iglesia Martell Law Firm envisions a world where lawyers are valued as healers, helpers, counselors, problem-solvers, and peacemakers. Conflicts are seen as opportunities for growth. Lawyers model balanced lives and are respected for their contributions to the greater good. Iglesia Martell Law Firm seeks to transform the practice of law, through education and support of holistic practice.
HOLISTIC LAW
Holistic Law is practice that focuses on the whole person and the whole of the problem as a way of finding more healthy and sustainable solutions to legal problems. Holistic Lawyering looks at the lawyer’s role, the client’s role in the problem and solution, as well as the impact of the problem and solution on the community. Holistic law is about helping people beyond their immediate legal needs, by looking at the broader context of their lives to see how it is impacting on their legal issues.
Holistic Law practitioners look inward to become whole themselves to better assist their clients in using the legal process to find wholeness. Holistic lawyers take a spiritual component, exploring the unity of purpose between the seemingly opposing parties. Holistic Lawyers often take a preventive law approach or a collaborative law approach as part of their holistic legal problem-solving.
Holistic law practice starts not from the question of “What happened?” but rather from the question of “What is happening now?” The difference in this orientation is largely the difference between thought and mindfulness. Mindfulness refers to a state of deeply connected awareness of the present moment. This awareness is grounded not in thought, but beyond thought. By cultivating an ability to access the present moment, we reconnect to our foundational sense of being. This state gives rise to an experiential realization that we are all part of something far beyond our individual life situations. It is upon tapping into this reality that we develop true understanding and compassion for others, even those whom we had previously “blamed” for our current legal difficulties. Mindfulness can also be a tool for solving the alienation and disconnection at the root of many societal problems particularly racial and social injustice.
FORGIVENESS/ MINDFULNESS/TRANSFORMATIVE
Divorce – Collaborative Practice viewing Divorce with an eye to the future. Resolving Disputes Respectfully, The marriage may end but the family goes on. Power of Forgiveness. Focus on solutions not blame.
Mindfulness, Thought, and Conflict Resolution
Criminal – Transformative or Restorative Justice
Peacemaking is practical conflict transformation focused upon establishing equitable power relationships robust enough to forestall future conflict, often including the establishment of means of agreeing on ethical decisions within a community, or among parties, that had previously engaged in inappropriate (i.e. violent) responses to conflict. Peacemaking seeks to achieve full reconciliation among adversaries and new mutual understanding among parties and stakeholders. When applied in criminal justice matters, peacemaking is usually called restorative justice, but sometimes also transformative justice. One popular example of peacemaking is the several types of mediation, usually between two parties and involving a third, a facilitator or a mediator.
Transformative justice uses a systems approach seeking to see problems, as not only the beginning of the crime but also the causes of crime, and tries to treat an offense as a transformative relational and educational opportunity for victims, offenders and all other members of the affected community. In theory, a transformative justice model can apply even between peoples with no prior contact.
Transforming the law one day at a time by practicing from the heart.
Mindfulness – Being Present. Mindfulness in the Law — Transforming the law through education and support.