Review of David Hall's book
Review by Michael Zeytoonian
Imagine back when you were a first year law school student or the first days of your graduate school training. What would your response have been if one of your professors asked you to visualize in your mind’s eye the intersection of your chosen profession and spirituality? Or imagine, five to ten years into your legal career, a colleague asking you if there is a crossroads where spirituality and the legal profession meet. Mention lawyer and spirituality in the same sentence and you’ll often get the typical, knee jerk response. Something along the lines of “Lawyer and spiritual? That’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?”
David Hall, professor of law and former Provost and Dean of the Northeastern University School of Law, is undaunted by the skeptical or cynical view of the legal profession. He presents it as a sacred profession, and tells us that the merging of spirituality and law was always there, waiting for us to discover its existence and re-connect with it. Once you have read his recently published book, The Spiritual Revitalization of the Legal Profession; A Search for Sacred Rivers, you will have no doubt that spirituality is at the core of the legal profession, as it is at the core or center of one’s very being.
But be warned: While Professor Hall has a gift for writing in a style that flows easily from the page into one’s consciousness, once it gets there, the reader will not be able to relax and keep reading. This book is like a seeker that searches every crevice of your being, that reaches to your center, connects with you and forces you to think, to feel, to question your own spirituality and your own professional walk. It gives insight, breathes energy and draws out the reader’s desire to response to its many challenges. This books calls us to be transformed in the way we now view and approach our vocation. In it, Prof. Hall gives us a blueprint for transforming our individual and collective practice of law. This transformation can be done and should be done. The challenge he gives us is the quest of seeking our truest, most sacred calling, leaving us to answer with action the question we ask ourselves: Will we do it?
“Spirituality is not something we can just declare, it is something we must practice, Hall writes. “In its purest sense, it is a mirror that points always at the person holding it, challenging them to live at their highest level of existence, and urging them to love that which exists on the other side of the mirror.”
Hall wastes no time in challenging us, pointing to “the majesty that dwells within us.” Using the river as a natural reference point, he calls on his readers to find the source and power of our own sacred rivers. The sacred river is there; it always has been, waiting for us. “Unfortunately too many lawyers do not se or hear this river. The walls they have erected around the profession block out its flow and sound… Some lawyers bathe in the river as part of their religious tradition, but are unwilling or unable to allow it to flow into their professional lives. Yet scattered through the legal profession are lawyers who not only have torn down the walls that block the river, but also have placed their lives and practices in the midst of its flow.”
Prof. Hall lays the foundation for the spiritual revitalization by offering seven “sacred values and principles that should be embodied in the spiritual quest of lawyers.” He contrasts his list to those values that have been offered by the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct. While the latter are “structured and conveyed as things to do or not to do”, his are things “to be or to become”. The Model “Rules are legal and aspirational in nature, but they are not inspirational in effect…They are regulatory, not transformative.” Hall offers this alternative: “These seven cornerstones of love, humility, humility, forgiveness, service, faith and integrity capture so much of the essential purpose and calling of the enlightened lawyer. If we could pursue, embrace and actualize these values in our daily living and practice, we could transform this profession.” He persuasively explains why these are the cornerstones. For example, “one of the highest spiritual callings is to be of service to those who are in need, but who cannot compensate for the services we provide. It is at this intersection of genuine need and manifested love that service is born.”
Those readers who embrace this book, and you’ll have no choice once you start reading it, will be simultaneously challenged and inspired to return to the spiritual roots of law. Hall examines the many “illusions” that lawyers get sucked into, patterns of behavior that prevent them from considering other ways to address situations. Soon, “the illusion is more comfortable than the truth. The truth is that as long as we remain clothed in these illusions we will never discover our true and authentic power as spiritual beings.” He then juxtaposes these illusions against the potential for miracle: “Buried beneath the illusions of law is the power of miracles. The power lies dormant in the hallowed hallways of law and the legal processes…When we shed the illusions we create miracles.” He urges us not to forget that we are miracle workers. “In the right hands, guided by a righteous heart, law can create special moments in the history of humankind.”
Hall’s mission is not only to lay a spiritual foundation for lawyers, but to show where and how the currents of spirituality are impacting areas of practice, teaching and social justice. In practice, Hall urges serving the whole client by developing a deeper understanding of the person as well as the legal issues. He calls us to reach beyond just representing clients in resolving conflicts, to cross the boundary of our traditional roles and look inside the souls of clients and share with them what we see. “Our greatest tool in our quest to serve the whole client and assist in that person’s healing is the fact that most people do not expect us to care. When w do our impact is multiplied.”
In a chapter entitled “New Streams and Old Dams”, Hall examines the newer holistic forms of practice, including Collaborative Law, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Contemplative Mind Practice and Restorative Justice. He gives considerable time to the development and growth of Collaborative Law, fleshing out his earlier references to serving the whole client, in which Hall captured the underlying spirit of Collaborative Law. “If we approach the situation through a spiritual lens, then we empower ourselves to see the whole person and provide whatever part of the answer the client’s river may be seeking,” Hall writes. “Collaborative lawyers have made the conscious decision to work from the river…When it is done right, the process can empower clients to construct their future instead of having it imposed upon them by a third party.” Further discussing serving the whole client, as Collaborative Law does, he encourages lawyer to be all there. “We can bring all of who we are to the experience, and we can empower the client to do the same.” But he reminds lawyers “we should never impose who we are upon the client, but we must be available to go where the river leads us and be equipped to guide the client.”
One of Prof. Hall’s concluding passages reflects the feeling and view many of us in the Collaborative practice community have felt as we transform our approaches and mindsets from litigation to collaborative law. “When we begin to see law as spirit and practice from the river, it is difficult to go about our daily work in the same way. The things we settled for in the past no longer feel comfortable. The patterns of behavior that we tolerated from those around us and from ourselves are more difficult to ignore.”
It’s safe to say that once one has read Prof. Hall’s words, the reader will feel this way as well. Transformation will do that to a person. It’s a worthy goal.
