Co-creating Peace

Welcome to Co-creating Peace, a podcast focused on Conscious Communication and Conflict Transformation. Do you have an important conversation that you know you need to have, but are dreading because you fear it will not go well? Do you avoid confrontation because you equate confrontation with conflict? Do you avoid conflict because you believe the only two approaches to conflict are fight or flight, and that nothing good ever comes from conflict? Then, Co-creating Peace is the podcast for you! In each 30-minute weekly episode, we will explore powerful tools and practices you can use to evolve your approaches to the important, yet difficult conversations you need to have. Each episode will be rich with a variety of tools, understandings, and advice in response to questions from people just like you. Your host, Kathleen Oweegon is the founder of Bridges of Peace Communication & Conflict Resolution Services. She brings to you over 20 years experience as a mediator, facilitator, and interpersonal communication coach, as well the shared wisdom of other experts in human relations, communication, and conflict resolution. Do you have a question or concern about a communication dynamic with someone in your life that you'd like some advice about? Are you wondering about how to tell your boss that their breath odor is offensive without shaming them? Thinking about taking a romantic relationship to the next step, but you aren't sure about how to negotiate getting your relationship needs met? Wishing you had the right words for a sensitive conversation you know you need to have? Are you longing to resolve a conflict or break a conflict cycle with someone in your life? Submit your questions to Kathleen at: oweegon@bridgesofpeace.com, and she will give you detailed answers in a podcast!Listen to Co-creating Peace and become empowered to co-create peace in your life!

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Co-creating Peace

Co-creating Peace Episode #99 – “The Lawyer as Peacemaker”

December 19, 2022 • Kathleen Oweegon

Most people see the legal arena as a place to do battle, a place where we annihilate the person we see as our opponent. We seek an attorney to be our warrior to win the legal battle for us. What if there was another way? What if attorneys took a different approach, one where they would still be an advocate and champion the cause of their client, but without long drawn-out battle and attempts at mutual annihilation? What might be possible if attorneys shifted to a heart-centered approach to their law practice?

Welcome to “The Lawyer as Peacemaker”, Episode #99 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation. Eric Sirotkin, an attorney for over 40 years, with a law practice in Santa Fe, NM, joins me to talk about creative skill-sets for the 21st century lawyer, moving the role of a lawyer from warrior to a partner for peace in the just resolution of disputes.
Highlights of our conversation include:

Recognition of how we are all connected, how the harm we do to others is harm to ourselves, and how remembering Unbutu can help us transcend the desire for retaliation
Exploring the importance of attorneys shifting to a more heart-centered, healing, (Unbutu) way of practicing law and how they can begin to make that shift
Discussion of how mediation, restorative justice, and transitional justice empower people to find peaceful resolution, even after traumatic events
Looking at integrative and collaborative law and how they differ from standard practices of law
Some of the things that Eric learned from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Eric Sirotkin’s work around the world, including with Archbishop Tutu, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, and restorative justice processes has led him on a mission to reframe the law by retraining lawyers on Creative Tools to expand their skillset and humanize their profession. He teaches techniques to survive and thrive in the “us vs them” world of law, helping lawyers gain an understanding of the nature of human relationships that will give them an edge in litigation, legal counseling, and resolving conflict. He is the author of “Witness: A lawyer's journey from litigation to liberation”.

By sharing successful alternative and indigenous models he helps lawyers use such skills in their everyday practice while weaving in a new slant on legal ethics reflective of a healing profession, that repatterns what it means to provide honest advice and confront moral dilemmas within a case.

To register for one of Eric’s classes “Tools for Creative Lawyering” or learn more about The UbuntuWorks Project,visit www.ubuntuworksschool.org. To learn more about Eric and his work as an attorney, visit ericsirotkin.com.

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Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.