Information on Events and Trainings
Sign up for the Discovering Agreement Newsletter to find out about Upcoming Trainings and Events at the earliest possible moment!
2018 —
Conscious Contracts Intensive
Feb. 15-18, 2018
Rockport, Texas (USA)
Linda Alvarez, Randy Langford, and J. Kim Wright offer training focused on facilitating organizations in designing, integrating, and implementing their own customized system for dealing with disruption and conflict creatively — for business leaders and for attorneys who serve them.
Get away with a small group of like-minded colleagues for a few days of deep conversation, roll-up-the-sleeves workshopping, and shared growth at this beautiful, waterfront retreat.
CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT NOW!
2017 —
2016 —
Register Now for Early Bird Discount!
Discovering Agreement Training:
October 11-12, 2016 – Las Vegas
Linda Alvarez, Glenn Meier, and J. Kim Wright join together to present a two-day training in how to create “Conscious Contracts” and how to integrate the Discovering Agreement approach into legal practices and business relationships.
Lawyers – earn 12.50 hour CLE
Non-lawyers – Learn how to take back your power and make the most of your lawyer’s skills
Today’s innovative business leaders want to make sure their companies do well, and do good for everyone they touch. These conscious business leaders often see a big disconnect between maintaining strong relationships with their stakeholders and the tools the legal system gives them to resolve disputes. Conscious Contracts are about closing that disconnect. – Glenn Meier
Imagine a contract that:
- Stimulates and supports rapid return to alignment and productivity
in the face of unexpected change, - Inspires side-by-side problem-solving rather than adversarial
confrontation when parties disagree, - Learns with the business as it navigates the ever-changing,
digital-speed, modern marketplace.
Conscious Contracts take an entirely new approach to negotiating and drafting contracts, allowing the parties to express their shared vision, mission and values, and giving the parties a completely new framework for handling disputes, one that allows them to stay aligned with those core principles. These contracts are not weapons to be deployed in a legal battle, they are tools that create space for the parties to come out of conflict together, stronger than before.
In this course you will learn how to:
- Uncover the core principles that connect you to your stakeholders;
- Use those principles as a lighthouse that can guide you through disruptive events;
- Transform events of conflict from challenges that threaten to destroy relationships to opportunities to build and strengthen them;
- Align your interactions with others, and with the legal system, to your most important values and principles. Lawyers, learn how to deliver these innovative tools to your clients and bring them value in new and expansive ways.
This training is for lawyers and non-lawyers alike!
Learn how business people and their lawyers can work together to make the legal system an ally (rather than an obstacle) in the quest to do well by doing good.
LAWYERS (12.50 CLE – CA State Bar)
- Take your work beyond the fine print, expand your role as an advisor.
- Practice creating powerful contractual relationships that help parties sustain alignment with their values and principles, and also support productivity, agility, and integrity for businesses in today’s relentlessly disruptive marketplace.
- Gain the tools to foster deeper connections between you and your clients, and between your clients and the other party.
- Learn how to seamlessly integrate the work you do for your clients with the things that your clients hold sacred in the world–while remaining an powerful and effective advocate.
BUSINESS PEOPLE
- Learn how to take the driver’s seat in deal-making and in the way your business relationships meet and resolve challenges.
- Discover how your contracts can become vital tools for effective problem-solving and real-time response to crisis – enabling you to quickly resolve rising tensions and harness the creativity inherent in every disruption or conflict.
- Make the most of your lawyer’s skill and knowledge, forging a powerful partnership without sacrificing your own power or the ability to implement common-sense solutions in response to disruptive events.
Early bird discounts:
If you register
by August 31, 2016 – $795
by September 15, 2016 – $995
after September 15, 2016 – $1195
Attendees receive a free copy of
DISCOVERING AGREEMENT
Contracts That Turn Conflict Into Creativity(American Bar Assoc. Flagship Book) – a $50.00 value!
North America Training: Full Details (downloadable brochure / schedule & agenda)
North America Training: Oct. 11-12, 2016 Register (Eventbrite)
Call for Clarity Conference: March 30, 2016
A conference for experts and advocates serious about conquering the crisis of complexity to improve business and society.
The Call For Clarity Conference is a simplicity symposium organized by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn, pioneers of bringing simplicity to business and government.
It showcases the work of 9 unique Simplification Innovators. They were chosen from hundreds of entries and dozens of disciplines. They’re accomplishing unpredictable, unheard of things to overcome complexity in finance, healthcare, criminal justice and more.
Their lessons can improve your business, your health, your finances and society in general. You’ll walk away from this one-of-a-kind conference with a new perspective and solid insights, fully motivated to address and overcome the crisis of complexity.
Linda Alvarez: What if contracts were used to provoke peace and not war? Creativity rather than combat? “Discovering Agreement” offers a new approach to the formation, the language, and the enforcement of contracts. Parties to a Discovering Agreement contract become the designers and captains of their relationship, able to use their contract terms as a frame and framework for meeting uncertainty and disruption with agility and resilience.
American Bar Assoc. Dispute Resolution Conference: April 7-9
(First day – April 7; 9:30 AM)
Revisioning the Role of the Lawyer Building Creativity, Resiliency, and Healing into Practice
In addition to ADR, other new approaches are quickly gaining ground as lawyers embrace greater roles as healers and peacemakers. This interactive program will provide an overview of the integrative law movement that is rapidly growing worldwide and look at two examples:
(1) An innovative approach to contract formation that emphasizes sustainable relationships and includes mechanisms for engaging conflict as partners rather than opponents
(2) The role forgiveness can play in legal disputes and how lawyers and mediators can help clients find healing and closure through apology and forgiveness.
Participants will have an opportunity to explore their own visions.
Panelists:
J Kim Wright, Cutting Edge Law, JKimWright.com; Eileen Barker, Barker Mediation, The Path of Forgiveness; Linda Alvarez, Discovering Agreement
2014 —
Keynote speaker – “Building a Legal Career With Authenticity” at:
Catapult Conference: March 1, 2014
After a fun and exciting first year, the Catapult legal career conference is back — bigger and better than ever! You’ll find answers to many common questions below, and please let us know if you’d like any additional information and we’ll happily help you out.
What is Catapult?
Catapult is an innovative annual conference that empowers law students and young lawyers to take control of their legal careers and think creatively about the future.
2013 —
Lawyers As Peacemakers & Healers – 2d Annual Conference
Phoenix School of Law (PSL) will again be hosting this exciting conference in February 2013. The conference will bring together the disciplines of the Comprehensive/Integrative Law movement to educate the public, encourage and support lawyers, judges, mediators, and other legal professionals in this work. Comprehensive Law, also known as Integrative Law, is an international movement in law that integrates concepts of healing conflict, peacemaking, and humanistic values into legal practice. It includes disciplines such as:
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence
- Discovering Agreement: A Framework for Shifting Business Paradigms toward Trust and Partnership
- Collaborative Law
- Restorative Justice
- Reflective practices in the law
- Reducing the toxicity of law practice
- And other approaches to law and dispute resolution that focus on human and relational well-being.
The conference begins on Friday evening, which is open to the public and continues Saturday and Sunday with CLE opportunities. Presenters include leaders in the Comprehensive Law (law as a healing profession) movement such as Professor Susan Daicoff, Integrative Law leader and attorney/author J. Kim Wright; Michael Zimmerman, former Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court and a meditation instructor; Rhonda V. Magee, Professor, University of San Francisco, and many other local and national presenters. The conference also will highlight many of PSL’s professors.
Presenter Bio’s(links will download .pdf files)
- Alisa Gray
- Bruce Meyerson
- Cat Zavis
- Hon. Donn Kessler
- J Kim Wright
- Joe Flies-Away
- Keith Swisher
- Ken Jaray
- Linda Alvarez
- Pamela Donison
- Robin Slocum
- Siera Russell
- Susan Daicoff
A portion of the profits will be donated to Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP)
*The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement. This session may qualify for up to 12 hours of CLE credit.
2012 —
Fearless Transformation for Lawyers:
Visionary Thinking Inside the Legal System
Drawing on years of experience (and experiments), Linda Alvarez and Judi Cohen offer practical ways to engage the power dynamics present in business and legal affairs without separating personal values from professional actions. We’ll share practical tools for creating systems and practices that calibrate and sustain this alignment, as well as, ways to embed these systems into business and legal practices, agreements and conflict engagement.
Weekend of March 2-4, 2012
In interactive and introspective ways, we’ll investigate together – examining current legal paradigms, inquiring about their purpose, and discussing how to engage the system while remaining aligned with our vision, mission, and values. Where we uncover misalignment, we’ll create ways to readjust and realign, evoking tools like self-awareness, integrity, empathy and insight. In practical hypotheticals, we’ll re-imagine and re-tool to create innovative, portable solutions that will be useful to attorneys and anyone who hires attorneys, and that are essential to enlightened engagement with the legal system. The take-away will be a fearless ability to choose transformation—in your practice if you are a lawyer, and in your business if you deploy lawyers—all from a powerful, practical platform.
Linda Alvarez’s work as an attorney and as a business consultant transforms the way contract negotiation, drafting, and enforcement impact business relationships. In addition to providing traditional legal services in the areas of trademarks, copyrights and business transactions, Linda trains and counsels individuals and businesses regarding all areas of contract negotiation and drafting.
Judi Cohen has practiced and taught law, meditation and yoga for 25 years. She founded and runs Warrior One, a company that coaches and trains lawyers, law firms and law students to be true Warriors: passionate advocates grounded by wisdom and compassion. Her clients are lawyers and law firms developing awareness practices and engaging in strategic visioning so that they can be both brilliant and visionary; eloquent and deeply attentive; focused and wide-open-minded; balanced and fierce.
A one-day CLE introducing innovative approaches that open new career and practice horizons. Shifting focus from the grim news pervading legal headlines, this event will be packed with practical and immediately applicable ideas, tools and processes for successful new ways of practicing law.
Sponsored and Hosted by:
Golden Gate University School of Law
536 Mission Street, San Francisco — 6 MCLE Credits Available
Beyond merely presenting theoretical concepts, this team – drawing on their own trail-blazing experience – will help you focus your unique vision for how you want to practice, then create an action plan for success, whether your desire is to work with an existing firm (and enjoy it!) or open your own thriving practice.
Topics include: New Models of Practice · Discovering Agreement: Practicing with Integrity · Practicing Law in the New Economy · New Ways of Being as a Lawyer · And more!
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER: www.cuttingedgelaw.com/newlawfirm
General: $300 ($280 by August 20) Law Students: $75 ($50 by August 20)
Program
Arrival and registration: 8:30 – 9:00 am
New Models of Practice: J. Kim Wright, 9-10 am
Society is undergoing a systemic change and law is no exception. In the midst of the chaos of change, new models are arising that are based on collaboration, restoration, and a more holistic view of conflicts and the roles of lawyers. New lawyers are expecting more of their careers: to actually make a difference, to earn a good living, to have time for a personal life. What is your perfect blend of law and life? Begin the exploration!
Discovering Agreement – Practicing With Integrity: Linda Alvarez, 10-11 am
Many perceive a palpable disconnect between our aspirations for justice and social responsibility and the way that legal and business affairs are actually conducted. Discover how lawyers can function as transformational leaders, maneuvering with skill and agility through existing legal and business systems while simultaneously catalyzing change in those systems. Informed by current research in neuroscience and by developing trends in business, and drawing on years of study of the underlying principles and proven track-record of restorative dispute resolution models, the process of Discovering Agreement re-frames negotiation, drafting, performance and enforcement of legal agreements and demonstrates that lawyers can operate within the existing legal system with integrity – active dedication to their personal values and principles – without sacrificing effectiveness or credibility.
Break: 11:00 – 11:15
Practicing Law in the New Economy: Janelle Orsi and Jenny Kasan, 11:15 am – 12:15
Social enterprise, cooperatives, local currencies, barter economies, sharing, micro-enterprise, local investing – these are some of the practices that comprise what many now call the “new economy” or the “sharing economy.” What is the role of transactional attorneys in the transition to more sustainable and localized economies? Sharing law and social enterprise law are two new fields of practice with vast potential for attorneys all over the country. Learn more about what it’s like to work in these field and how you might carve out your own path.
Lunch provided: 12:15-1:45 — Collaborative Opportunities – Engaging in dialogue with attendees.
New Ways of Being as a Lawyer: Judi Cohen, 1:45-2:45 pm
Practicing law while staying open-minded, and open-hearted: that’s the challenge. We’ll start that process by engaging in awareness practices that are portable and will give you a greater ability to focus your mind; empathize; communicate respectfully with even the most provocative people; deal wisely with conflict; and engage in honest self-examination without self-criticism. We’ll also take a long view of the impact our work has on the world, and begin aligning our work with that view. The goal: reclaiming the law as an honored profession populated by inspired, connected counselors, whose clients feel well-represented and also heard, seen, honored and respected.
Putting It All Together With Your Vision and Plan: Pat Sullivan, 2:45 – 3:45 pm
You were well trained to set and meet goals, but how can you develop a fuller vision that’s true to your purpose and values, and ensures time to enjoy life? Discover here how to reclaim imagination, intuition and other key visionary potentials that life probably trained out of you, long before law school. Learn how to use those potentials to evoke and shape your truest vision, then use a basic business plan template to put your vision effectively into action.
Break: 3:45 – 4:00
Wrap-Up: J. Kim Wright (et al.) 4:00 – 5:00
Featuring:
J. Kim Wright, Founder of CuttingEdgeLaw.com, Author of Lawyers as Peacemakers — J. Kim Wright is the publisher of CuttingEdgeLaw.com and the author of a 2010 American Bar Association best-seller, Lawyers as Peacemakers, Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law. She was named as one of the ABA’s Legal Rebels “finding new ways to practice law, represent their clients, adjudicate cases and train the next generation of lawyers.”
Jenny Kassan and Janelle Orsi, Co-Directors, SustainableEconomies Law Center— Jenny Kassan and Janelle Orsi are Co-Directors of the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland, an organization that facilitates the growth of sustainable and localized economies, through education, legal research, and advocacy to support practices such as barter, cooperatives, community-supported enterprises, sharing, local currencies, ecovillages, urban agriculture, and local investing. Janelle and Jenny as co-authors of the forthcoming American Bar Association book: “Sharing Law: The Legal Landscape of the Sharing Economy.”
Janelle is also a “sharing lawyer,” and her own law practice is focused on helping individuals and organizations share resources and create more sustainable communities. Her legal services assist people to share housing, workspaces, and cars, and to form worker cooperatives, nonprofits, childcare cooperatives, cohousing communities, social enterprises, and community gardens. Janelle Orsi is co-author of The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life & Build Community (Nolo Press 2009), a practical and legal guide to cooperating and sharing resources of all kinds. In 2010, she was named a “Legal Rebel” by the American Bar Association.
Jenny is an attorney specializing in socially responsible ventures. She is the managing director of Katovich Law Group. She recently launched a new business with John Katovich and Michael Shuman called Cutting Edge Capital that helps small businesses raise capital without venture capitalists, angel investors, or banks. Jenny earned a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and earned her J.D. from Yale Law School. She worked for eleven years at the Unity Council, a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland.
Linda Alvarez, Designing Collaborative Endeavours — Linda Alvarez has been practicing law for 14 years. Most of those years she practiced in large firms – Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Palo Alto) and Vinson & Elkins (Houston) – where she represented multi-national corporations in matters concerning trademark rights, copyrights, advertising practices and issues related to the conduct of online business. More recently, she practices solo. Her clients include best selling authors, filmmakers and businesses from sole-proprietorships to corporations with internationally recognized consumer brands. Through Linda’s work with and for her clients (both as an attorney and as a business consultant), the Discovering Agreement process has transformed negotiation, drafting, performance and enforcement of contracts involving major publishing houses and literary agencies, as well as major corporations such as, Deloitte, Thomson Reuters, and OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) — among others.
Judi Cohen, Founder, Warrior One LLC — Judi Cohen is the founder of Warrior One LLC, a company whose mission is to ignite transformation in the law by coaching and training lawyers to be true warriors – passionate advocates grounded by wisdom and compassion. Through Warrior One and as an attorney and law professor Judi has coached hundreds of lawyers and law students. She is currently an adjunct professor of law at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she teaches Contemplative Lawyering and runs the weekly Mindful Lawyering Group. Judi is a member of Social Ventures Network and the Lawyer’s Group for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and an alumnus of The Four Fold Way program with Angeles Arrien and the eighteen-month Mindful Yoga program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Pat Sullivan, Founder, Visionary Resources — Pat McHenry Sullivan, founder of Visionary Resources, creates inspired strategy for entrepreneurs and change-makers. Her book Work with Meaning, Work with Joy built on her experience with 500 lawyers in every field. She is the author of over 200 articles on meaningful work, vision or small business for media including the ABA Law Practice Management Journal, San Francisco Chronicle and Workforce Management Magazine. Her CLE for the California State Bar is “From Stress, Burnout and Exhaustion to Energy, Resilience and Insight.” Her MA from Holy Names University focused on how people distort, block or develop their visionary potential.
