Blanca Leon is a UK based lawyer who offers legal consulting support on commercial matters and solutions, combining purpose and values with plain language drafting and visual design to create clear, collaborative and human centric legal documents.

In January 2021, after nearly 10 years, she left a corporate in-house role to explore a holistic approach to practising law.

In this episode, we talk about how Blanca came to her decision and made the leap from corporate to purpose-driven, and what her experience has been thus far.

Show notes:

[2:13] Blanca relates how her involvement in the Conscious Contracts® course helped her develop her vision, mission and values.

[6:46] Blanca describes some of the tools she used to learn what her values were.

[9:40] In starting her purpose-driven legal practice, Blanca's vision and mission became clearer.

[14:15] Blanca reflects on how she evolved from an inhouse paralegal , to an in-house counsel, to where she is now and how she was driven by one of her values - curiosity.

[24:37] Blanca talks about what her purpose-driven legal practice looks like, who her clients are, and how she is creating it - including how she is expressing herself authentically so the 'right' people find her.

[30:22] In discovering her purpose, and aligning with it, Blanca has also had insight into how to apply her unique gifts to her work.

[34:55] Blanca offers her advice to anyone seeking to take the leap into a purpose-driven legal path.

For more please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Sylvia Clute is the founder of a revolutionary model of criminal justice, know as unitive justice. A former trial attorney, she has devoted her life to justice – but unlike many she has truly reflected on the meaning of this word - justice.

For Sylvia, there are two fundamental models of justice, one grounded in fear that seeks retribution and revenge and one grounded in love that seeks healing and transformation--what she calls "Unitive Justice”.

In this episode, Sylvia shares her vision and the work she does in not just formulating the model but bringing it to life.

Show notes

[1:45] Sylvia relates how she transformed from being a trial attorney who 'went for the jugular' to the founder of a kinder, more loving and healing model of justice with no punitive elements.

[7:30] Through remaining actively practising as a trial attorney, Sylvia built up her model of unitive justice. She identified non-punitive counterparts to correspond to the 14 punitive elements she found in traditional justice models.

[11:35] We need new language to discuss unitive justice because we lack even the words to describe the different concepts it represents.

[17:20] Sylvia relates how she came across 'circle processes', which she sought to take into a public housing project. This introduced her to two convicted felons who had themselves discovered the power of unitive justice concepts via a method they called 'radical tenderness'..

[24:26] With Paul Taylor and Weldon 'Prince' Bunn, Sylvia has co-created a programme called Unity Prison Culture Change which they are piloting in prisons and eventually will take to the community.

[28:07] We discuss the empowerment that unitive justice gives to victims, when we understand that many victims go on to become offenders, and then can use their experiences to be 'credible messengers of change'

[35:43] Sylvia talks about the work she is doing in education, with troubled schools. arming teachers with tools to engender culture change.

For more, please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

We can use laws to nurture our common humanity or create divisions between us.

Intellectual property laws offer us a fine example of how we can unite, rather than separate.

Ariadni Athanassiadis is a Canadian intellectual property and contracts legal professional practising to support solopreneurs, creatives and small business. Her passion has always been to creatively empower others. Her wisdom path as a professional nomad has guided her to appreciate how our joyful expression in relationship with one another can bring about creative harmonics and generative outcomes for communities

In this show, we delve into Ariadni's reimagined IP paradigm, which is a much more effective and productive approach to nurturing the wellspring of creativity that lies in each of us, for the collective good.

Show notes

[2:17] Ariadni describes her vision of intellectual property laws which honours the creativity of our Source essence and empowers the flow of that wellspring of creativity through us.

[11:22] Ariadni explains how she deals with notions of fear, scarcity and protection through her unique method which blends coaching and legal advice.

[19:37] How Ariadni's vision can be maintained even by large corporations dealing with IP in addition to solopreneurs and smaller enterprises.

[27:16] A beautiful retelling from Ariadni of how she shaped her vision of a new approach to IP laws, taking in Indigenous approaches and her own Greek heritage.

[39:14] Ariadni has practical advice for lawyers looking to practise IP law differently - get out into the community and learn from your clients!

For more information, please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Chuck Menahem Kanafi is a values-based, purpose driven lawyer. He specialises in conflict prevention and management and contracts.

​He is a Certified Mediator and brings an intentional and mindful approach to mediation. He is a Certified Conscious Contracts® practitioner and trainer.

We discuss his insights into new ways of addressing conflicts in mediation and ​through Conscious Contracting® as well as his plans to assist impactful businesses through more compassionate contracts.

Show notes

[2:17] Chuck describes how transformative mediation works to deliver better solutions than traditional dispute settlement.

[8:00] Chuck relates how he came to mindful meditation and his inclusion of mindfulness practices including meditation and Vipassana yoga.

[14:09] We drill into how legal representatives can help or hinder transformative mediation. and how best for lawyers to train for this approach.

[20:03] Chuck shares about his journey to becoming interested in Conscious Contracts® which started with Brexit.

[27:48] Chuck explains how Conscious Contracts® help prevent conflicts, and how traditional lawyers react to them, in his experience.

[33:07] Chuck's latest plans are to assist conscious businesses, such as B-Corps and social enterprises, to integrate Conscious Contracts® into their operations, so they don't omit their conscious approach from their legal frameworks.

To learn more, please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Nigel Clark is the CEO of nexa law, an innovative and fast-growing UK-based law business.

He is an international lawyer and an expert in New Law business models. He has had a curiosity about legal business structures for many years and managed cross-border legal services businesses in cities from London and Beijing for a large international law firm.

​Nigel most recently co-founded and managed Peregrine Law in London which was acquired by nexa law in January 2020.

In this episode, I pick Nigel's brains on New Law structures and learn more about what nexa law offers - especially how it promotes choice and collegiality.

Show notes

[2:27] Nigel describes how he came to develop the nexa law model with his initial business partner as a back-office platform and connector for lawyers.

[6:33] Nigel talks about the difference between rainmakers and technicians, and how the nexa law model tries to meet the needs of both while growing its business platform.

[9:14] Nigel explains the New Law market and some of the different models and drivers.

[14:03] Connex, the nexa law combined practice offering, balances the rainmakers with technicians.

[17:13] A huge advantage of nexa is choice - choice for lawyers and choice for consumers of legal services from City to High Street.

[21:01] nexa lawyers work in teams and as individuals - Nigel explains how. COVID and innovations in precedent development has accelerated alternative law models.

[26:54] We talk culture, collaboration and collegiality - alll strengths of nexa.

[29:47] Alternative models like nexa also promote diversity - from gender to age to career paths.

For more, please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Maureen Ngozi Obi-Ezekpazu is a barrister with her own chambers in London, England.

Her life story shines with love, courage and service. She is no mystic, guru, or sage. She is a practising lawyer who happens to function with higher awareness of her connection to spirit and lives and breathes it in all her dealings.

She experienced a harrowing childhood of under-privilege, prejudice and abuse growing up in 1960s England as a child of Nigerian migrants. She overcame all of it and today is a successful civil rights lawyer.

Maureen offers holistic legal services to professional and lay clients in the law relating to children and families. She offers services in advice and advocacy, mediation and training workshops. She provides advice directly to the public through the Public Direct access scheme operated by the UK Bar Council.

Her story is bound to amaze and inspire but, as she says herself, everyone has to find their own path and contribute their own unique gifts to the whole.

Show notes

[2:30] Maureen's shares her early years as a child of Nigerian migrants in England, and her experiences of being placed in foster care at 6 weeks old.

[5:06] Maureen returned to her mother at age 5, after her father departed for Nigeria for mental health reasons.

[8:34] Maureen's experiences as an intelligent and gifted child taught her the world insisted on conformance and passed judgment easily.

[13:00] How Maureen first encountered her natural affinity for law at secondary school.

[15:46] Maureen spread her knowledge into business and learned about the incredible power some people have over others.

[17:57] Maureen began work in a law office, but not as a lawyer - her journey to that was just beginning.

[22:34] Maureen applies for the Access to Law course - an unconventional route to law practice which exposed her to social justice and civil rights issues in a remarkable way.

[26:08] Qualifying as a solicitor, Maureen embarks on 18 years of dealing with clients in a heart-centred way.

[34:01] Maureen fulfils her dream of becoming a barrister and secures a place with a prestigious civil rights barristers' chambers.

[37:14] Maureen establishes her own chambers and truly sets about on her mission to be God's instrument in her work.

[40:27] Maureen's work is to help bring about the end of a need for lawyers, as humanity becomes self-governing.

[43:20] Maureen shares her wisdom around learning to honour one's uniqueness and to preserve all of life and nature.

For more, please visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Emily Knowles is a trained lawyer who practises as an organisational psychologist.

One of her favourite perspectives is the interplay between organisational psychology and spirituality.

We talk about how the world of work is transforming for everyone. Emily provides helpful tools from the world of organisational psychology to help us navigate our work-lives, deal with the enormous changes in the why, where, how, and when we work, and be more impactful as lawyers.

Emily is a Psychologist, Consultant & Researcher at the Human Link in Melbourne, Australia and National Convener of the Buddhism and Psychology Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

Show notes

[2:59] Emily dissects the changes in work from 3 perspectives: the work, the worker, and the workplace.

[7:37] We talk about internal and external influences. Emily discusses the 3 things that impact wellbeing: the intrapersonal, the interpersonal and the environment.

[9:13] For Emily, environmental factors for a worker include individual space, shared space and natural environment.

[12:48] Emily talks about transformations affecting why we work, and how and when we work.

[15:27] Emily suggests we think about a to-be list, rather than a to-do list.

[18:46] How can we navigate tension between our organisations and individual workers? For lawyers, Emily has developed what she calls 'practice-area psychology'.

[23:49] Emily mentions Minds Count, a foundation that law firms can sign up to for supporting lawyer wellbeing at work .

[26:42] Practice area psychology allows lawyers to expand their influence beyond themselves to the norms of their legal practice.

[29:12] A practice like yoga can help professionals be more mindful of their bodies, minds and breath and impact how we show up,

[33:09] In our virtual world, Emily reminds us that it's more important than ever to be more than a head in a virtual box!

For more, visit the episode page on the New Earth lawyer website.

Katherine Thomas is the CEO of Free Range Lawyers, a collective of people who believe in the power of distributed and remote working to make lives and businesses better. The business connects freelance lawyers who work outside the office with legal service providers looking to flex their resource.

In her role, Katherine has her finger on the pulse of a movement to a different working style, as reflected in the Great Resignation. Katherine provides her informed views on the future of remote and independent working.

Show notes

[1:46] Katherine explains what Free Range Lawyers offers to its law firm clients, generally small and medium sized law firms.

[7:02] Katherine details the onboarding process for lawyers.

[10:04] Katherine shares what personality type suits a 'free range' lawyer.

[14:51] A key benefit and quality of a free range lawyer is autonomy, but it can also be a pitfall.

[19:44] Katherine observes that free range lawyers have a powerful ability to align their work with purpose and values, but it can be a journey to realise this.

[22:35] The collective of lawyers and clients at Free Range Lawyers share a philosophy of seeking ways to make work more sustainable.

[26:42] Katherine discusses the trends and factors she has seen in people being attracted to this style of work.

[30:57] Maintaining a network is an important part of making independent work sustainable, and Katherine explains how this happens and how it can be done.

[34:00] Katherine reveals how she came up with the name Free Range Lawyers!

[36:34] Katherine talks about her future plans for the business.

For more information, please visit the episode page of the New Earth lawyer.