Legend has it that six blind men encounter an elephant for the very first time in their lives. An elephant is like a tree to the man who touches the leg, a rope to the man who touches the tail, a wall to the man who touches the back, a tusk to a spear, a snake to the trunk, and fans to the ears. Their viewpoints are adamant, based on their limited experience with elephants.

As the practice of law becomes overspecialized, and different practice departments become more isolated and confined to practicing in their silos they look at different aspects of the client's legal problem the way the men in the story did with the elephant.

Legal or otherwise, almost any problem transcends the silos and compartments created by legal practice areas and disciplinary silos. Problems crisscross geographies and jurisdictions. Real-world problems are complicated, concurrent, and interrelated and cut across many aspects and disparate legal issues, jurisdictions, and disciplines.

This requires lawyers to collaborate across expertise and organizational boundaries. This requires that we embrace intradisciplinary attitudes not inter-disciplinary. Integrative lawyers are open to exploring and drawing upon many disciplines and wisdom traditions, such as philosophy, science, metaphysics, psychology, and spirituality. They bring this consciousness into the law and are partners with our colleagues in other disciplines.

Legal service delivery must be sufficiently coordinated to deal with related but disparate legal issues. It may often be inadequate to deal with each legal problem in isolation.

Dealing holistically with problems is just one outcome of integrative practice. The driver of integrative legal practice or holistic legal practice is to approach problems with a purpose. When one's purpose is to solve a problem or achieve a desire they do what it takes to reach the end goal. What they don't do is approach the problem with the purpose of applying their practice expertise to the problem. The goal is the end result, not to apply isolated practice areas to the problems.

For an integrative lawyer, even the desired goal is not an isolated one. Integrative law means creating relationships and legal structures that acknowledge the full humanity of the participants.

Integrative lawyers are design-thinkers and have a systemic view of the world.

Integrative Lawyers often have an experience of the interconnectedness of all things. Even the desired goal of solving a client's problem will not be a standalone outcome - it will have cause and effects on a lot of what surrounds it.

An integrative lawyer wants to bring solutions that give regard to that interconnectedness.

What are the first steps to becoming an integrative lawyer?

for me, it started with contemplative practices like meditation or yoga, often with the goal of addressing the stress and unease of practicing law in a way that doesn’t fit.

Our goal should be holistic legal practice to help clients achieve objectives and succeed, with improved outcomes and fewer problems - for all. A mission to redefine the place of lawyers from silo advisors of law to being integral strategic advisors and key to the client’s corporate, social and economic goals. We work with clients as their collaborators, trusted counsel, and coach.