Find your tribe. It's damn lonely without one.

Hello {{first_name}},

We all need to find our tribe

There are several commonalities I hear from all the lawyers I have spoken to and coached over the past 8 years. One of these is feeling alone and different to other lawyers.

Do you feel

• you have much more to offer the world than you are currently able to
• The way you’re practising now exhausts you
• You yearn to feel greater alignment between who you are and what you do
• “this isn’t it” when you think back to why you were drawn to the law all those years ago
• profoundly out of place when you look around legal environments, despite being able to play the game

You can totally change this if:

a) you start acknowledging who YOU really are - ALL of you, not just the "work you" and

b) you start connecting with your tribe - people at a similar level of consciousness who care about similar things.

You may well belong to many tribes as we are multi-faceted people. But one of them, if you are an awakening lawyer, is this tribe of lawyers all over the world who are challenging the status quo and finding ways to bring ALL OF WHO THEY ARE TO WHAT THEY DO.

On Tuesday night I hosted the first Pre Mentorship Mentors Visioning Circle with 8 lawyers from 5 different countries and it was AMAZING AND ENERGIZING AND BEAUTIFUL. And I'm talking about an online meeting of LAWYERS for heaven's sake! Just so you don't think I was the only person feeling this (I called the meeting after all, so of course it was up my alley) - here:

At the end of the call I asked everyone to say 2 words to describe how they were left feeling as we logged off. Their words:

Inspired loved

Inspired connected

Grateful safety

At home

Supported held

Homecoming

When we find our tribe it feels like coming home

I took this photo so I'm not in it! 9 July 2013. Those were the days of international travel! I was with some of the EXTRAORDINARY lawyers I've had the privilege of meeting along the way - for now I just want to mention Kim Wright - author of Lawyers as Peacemakers - and Lawyers as Changemakers (in the blue and white) And in the front in red - is Femke Wijdekop - an earth lawyer working to have ecocide recognised everywhere - destroying the earth is a crime! I spent 2 days with these women and others and it opened my heart and mind in ways I cannot tell you.

Working in the legal profession is hard. From the moment we start law school we are encouraged and schooled in developing only our cognitive ability and setting aside our emotional and intuitive selves. As one of the amazing mentors on the Awakening Lawyers Student Mentorship programme explained - it's like being a bodybuilder and only working out the right hand side of your body, ever. You would eventually be totally lopsided! And this is exactly what we are trained to do - ignore your feelings and those of your clients - deal with them efficiently and move on. Be logical and rational at all times. Ignore the need for human connection, your colleagues are competitors and counsel on the other side are not only competitors, they are baying for your blood. Ignore your bodily needs, as long you eat occasionally and get 5 or 6 hours sleep from time to time, you'll be fine. Wear dark coloured, restrictive clothing that makes you look like the lawyer you are. Always be right. Always know the answer. It is very important to pretend you know even if you do not, to be professional and keep everyone re-assured, and your reputation together.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little - but a good chunk of this is true!

For me I felt like I was coming home when I heard lawyers talk about

• their personal development work
• their care and compassion for their clients
• their wanting to make the world a better place
• their disgust with the existing hierarchies that don't get challenged
• their spiritual needs to feel whole, connected, free, grateful
• how to bring humanity back to the law and the legal system
• how to treat people with dignity, no matter what they've done

These are my people.

I want to introduce you to some of them over the coming weeks. I'll start with the mentors on this programme.

Leonieke Niessen who's a lawyer in the Netherlands who is also a soul voice coach.

Jacqueline Horani who is 5 years out of law school, running her own business Legally Unconventional that totally kicks ass. She has the most brilliant mind and open heart and she's doing things her way.

Nicolle Kopping-Pavars, an ex South African living in Canada who has an office full of crystals, is a reiki Master and does extraordinary work representing children in difficult cases.

There are so many more - but before this email gets too long let me try wrap it up!

So if this resonated with you - what now?

1. You may like to listen to the recording of the talk I did for PISLAP - the Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics. Because PISLAP is one of the places my tribe gathers. It or may not be for you - but I talk for about 40 mins - in a really vulnerable way about some of my personal experiences of conflict and why we need to start viewing it as an opportunity for transformation - especially if we are lawyers.

PISLAP Community call with Amanda Lamond.
​
The link and password are below.
For those with more limited time, my talk starts in minute 22.
(before that are introductions - you will hear members of the tribe!).
​
Please note with the password, that if you copy and paste it in, you may need to backspace once to reduce an extra space at the end that may lead to a notice that the password is inaccurate.

2. You may like to join the growing Awakening Lawyers community on a private FB group where people actually engage with other about the internal life of being a lawyer. Message me if interested.

3. I will be offering 10 slots for free Clarity Calls in the next 2 weeks. These are calls with me, in which we look at what you most want right now, and explore what's holding you back and how we might get you there. I have a range of tools - including contacting your spiritual guides for help with that pesky issue - "um, why am I here again?"

The world has enough burnt out, disillusioned lonely lawyers.

Don't be one of them.

Choose differently.

Drop me a mail back if you're ready to book a Clarity Call. You don't have to sign up for anything. We will talk and see what you need.

I run Awakening Lawyers to help lawyers who love the law but are disillusioned and disheartened by the way it’s practiced, to re-imagine and redesign their lives so that they can practice in their own way, in their own time, and on their own terms.

I am a legal futurist, a lawyer coach and a channel.

​
I love working with lawyers at all stages of their awakening journey, especially those who are starting to see a new role for themselves as peacemakers, as justice warriors and as activists for social change. I work with my clients to deal with the challenges they face working within a restrictive and often conservative legal culture that promotes hiding your authentic self under a professional mask and suppressing both your own and your client’s emotions.

l look forward to hearing from you if it feels right. Always go by HOW YOU FEEL. If this feels exciting - reach out for a free Clarity Call.