Love and Law with Virginia Warren

TUNE IN and join Virginia Warren LIVE as she interviews an extraordinary lawyer who also ‘gentles’ wild mustangs, Jo Belasco.

Jo works with law in two places. One is her law firm, Windhorse Legal, and the other is her nonprofit, Tapestry Institute.

She knew in high school that she wanted to be an attorney. She read the book “Helter Skelter” about the Manson murders and wanted to be a prosecutor and help crime victims. She thought the prosecutor’s ability to figure out Manson’s motive was amazing.

In the early years she gained a wealth of interesting experience. She was an intern in the Legal Advisor’s Office for the Boston Police Department. She prosecuted police officers at Department hearings after sustained Internal Affairs investigations. She represented officers in depositions to keep records confidential.

She worked with the entertainment industry, like the X-Files, when they wanted to use the Department name and logo. She did district court hearings when someone’s license to carry a firearm was denied or revoked. She even argued and won a case before Massachusetts’ highest court. It was a high stress job, though, so she left after a few years and became a legal editor, working on several law enforcement publications.

Her life then took an unexpected turn, and she left the law for 15 years to work for a nonprofit, Tapestry Institute. Tapestry was founded by a Choctaw scientist and educator, and they do work with Indigenous knowledge and within Indigenous worldview.

Because funding can be hard for nonprofits, about 5 years ago, Jo decided to open a virtual law firm to do nonprofit work and also be financially sustainable. She now practices law at her entirely virtual firm, Windhorse Legal, and she also recently started doing legal education at Tapestry about Indigenizing environmental law.

She knew that she didn’t want to have a law firm based on the adversarial system. She had worked too long in the nonprofit world and with Indigenous people. She didn’t want to go back to that Western culture model that pits people against each other. It’s too exhausting in so many ways - financially, emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. She is a lifelong horsewoman of more than 45 years now, and she had been an equine professional for more than 20. She decided to combine her horse experience with my legal skills and knowledge so that she could practice preventive equine law and hopefully help horse people before problems arose. She doesn't do any litigation.

And she says she’s had the great pleasure and honor of gentling wild Mustangs. They are amazing horses!

If you are a lawyer who brings love into law in your own unique way, then we would LOVE to hear from you. Contact us at [email protected], or check out our projects at www.lawyersforlove.love.

TUNE IN and join Virginia Warren LIVE as she interviews Marguerite Picard.

Marguerite says her journey into law started from a place of complete naivety and with no family history or connections to the law. She considers that served her well, as she had no preconceptions, no attachment to income or status. She just wanted an interesting life , which she says it has delivered!!

Marguerite is now a co-founder of MELCA who sees her job as a lawyer differently from the way most of the profession sees its job. She’s been doing this work for more than three decades now, and as a legacy of that, her aim these days is to be a facilitator and peacemaker.

She made the decision to team up with psychologists and financial planners to help separating couples reach agreements, because I think that’s the best way to approach divorce and separation.

Marguerite is an Accredited Specialist Family Lawyer, Collaborative Practitioner, Mediator, Arbitrator and Collaborative Trainer. During her lawyer life, she has worked in criminal law, property and commercial and wills and estates, before specializing in family law some 20 years ago. She says all of this has been incredibly interesting and has added to the sum of the lawyer she is today.

Marguerite explains that she  brings her version of love into law by working right away from the ‘bear pit’ of the court.  By that she means the bear pit of adversarial negotiations that threaten to drop people into the actual bear pit. She says she knows it’s a place some people need, but she says she doesn’t need to go there. She is encouraging as many people as possible to see that they don’t either.

If you are a lawyer who brings love into law in your own unique way, then we would LOVE to hear from you. Contact us at [email protected], or check out our projects at www.lawyersforlove.love.

TUNE in as Virginia interviews Alicia Temmerman Lawyer, who will be channelling spirit LIVE!!! We will see what spirit has to say about ways in which more love can be brought into legal practice and our world at this time.

Alicia Temmerman has been a lawyer for almost 20 years, specialising in employment law and workplace mediations and conflict resolution. Alicia is also the Founder of the Global Soul Centre and the author of PURE ENERGY - The Busy Woman’s Energy Guide to Thrive. She is also a Spirit Channeler, an Energy & Relationship Coach and a mumma of 4.

Her soul mission is to help others RAISE their energetic frequency and enjoy life more and to help others gracefully navigate being a ‘human being’ on ‘Earth School’, whilst helping you remember who YOU REALLY ARE, a magnificent spiritual / light being.

Alicia brings her unique style to the law by seeing her legal work as ‘healing work’ with her overriding intention being to help the human (and look past the roles of employee or manager) for their highest good. Alicia brings compassion and kindness to her role to really see and hear the humans involved in workplace conflict to listen deeply to “what is really going on”.

Alicia’s legal work and global soul centre work has recently intersected, as she has had the privilege of delivering workplace training to organisations on “Cultivating a Culture of Kindness.”

Alicia started her legal career with a Top Tier firm in Melbourne, Minter Ellison Lawyers, in 2002. Alicia was with Minters for almost ten years and was promoted to Senior Associate. Alicia then moved into a Government role, heading up the Employee Investigations Team for the Department of Justice across the areas of Consumer Affairs, Courts & Tribunals, Corrections Victoria, Infringement Management & Enforcement Services, Gaming & Racing and Responsible Alcohol Victoria. Alicia started her own HR/Legal business in 2012, Dumais Workplace Services, where she focuses on workplace mediations, conflict coaching and dispute resolution. In 2019, Alicia expanded her mediation offerings to assist couples to help them to thrive in their relationship, through her business, The Marriage Hub.

If you like to connect with Alicia, follow her on these links:

Website: http://www.aliciatemmerman.com

Website: https://www.globalsoulcentre.com

Website: https://themarriagehub.com.au

Website: https://www.dumaisws.com.au

Global Soul Centre - FB Page

https://www.facebook.com/Global-Soul-Centre-335202543801965/

Breathe Love Laugh - FB Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Breathe.Love.Laugh/

Thrive Free Women’s Online Wellness Classes - FB Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThriveFreeWomenOnlineClasses/

Alicia Dumais Temmerman - IG Account

https://www.instagram.com/global_soul_centre_w_alicia_t/

TUNE IN and join Virginia Warren LIVE as she interviews Iain Smith. 

Iain believes in the saying that “the hardest thing to do is be Kind to those who appear Unkind”. He says that when you scratch the surface and dive below the anger & addiction, you will inevitably discover pain. Whilst Iain says his job is stressful, upsetting & exhausting it is also more rewarding, being less about law now and more about relationships. Knowing the biological science of trauma has made him more compassionate, empathetic and determined to raise awareness of the impact of trauma.  

Iain graduated in 1993 and trained at Skene Edwards & Garson WS. Robert Louis Stevenson also trained there. In 1998, he created his own firm with Jim Keegan QC, 20 years his senior.    

Iain specializes in crime now, previously having practiced in litigation including contracts, divorces, and child cases.   

A shift for Iain came when he watched the film “Resilience” by the late and great Jamie Redford shadowed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and explained the horrific effects Adverse Childhood Experiences can have on the developing brain, which made Iain realize that the people he thought he helped were actually suffering from pain that he did not notice at the time.   

Iain says that we cannot punish people out of their addiction but we can love them and help signpost them to recovery.   

You can connect with Iain Smith to learn more via email: [email protected]   If you are a lawyer who brings love into law in your own unique way, then we would LOVE to hear from you. 

Contact us at [email protected], or check out our projects at www.lawyersforlove.love.

TUNE IN and join Virginia Warren LIVE as she interviews Ritu Goswamy.  

Ritu chooses to bring love into law because of a perspective that love can be a vehicle for change. Ritu believes that laws bring equality and when laws don’t work like they should, lawyers challenge them with love.   Ritu started by taking a holistic approach to lawyering - looking at all the systems that clients interface with when they have a legal issue and then began to coach lawyers to be more holistic.   Now a leadership coach and DEI strategist Ritu is changing the legal profession to be more aligned with the love we had when we started.  Ritu is a trainer in the areas of lawyers productivity, competence and mindfulness.   Ritu is also a best selling author of The New Billable Hour: Bill More Hours, Be More Productive, and Still Have Work Life Balance and The Holistic Lawyer: Use Your Whole Brain to Work Smarter not Harder. We are all excited to read Ritu’s next book which will be released this summer entitled “The Lawyer Leader: Serve Authentically, Find Peace , and Create Change”  

You can connect with Ritu to learn more via email: [email protected]   If you are a lawyer who brings love into law in your own unique way, then we would LOVE to hear from you. Contact us at [email protected], or check out our projects at www.lawyersforlove.love.

⭐️ TUNE IN and join Virginia Warren LIVE as she interviews Melisa Quinn. Originally from wild Te Tai Poutini/West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand, Melisa is now a Property Solicitor at Saunders & Co Solicitors, a boutique firm in Cannon Hill, Brisbane.  The majority of her work involves Conveyancing, various Small Business matters, Wills and Estates, as well as Marketing and Management. Melisa enjoys the flexibility, variety of work and responsibilities, autonomy and closeness of the team at Saunders & Co Solicitors.  Outside the office, Melisa volunteers at the Environmental Defenders Office and event manages over ten outdoor lifestyle and music gatherings in Queensland. Melisa also works with Reiki and Sound on a regular basis and many of her hobbies are considered to be related to holistic health and/or art.   Melisa does not consider her interest in legal practice to be vastly different to many other Lawyers and Law Students that she has spoken with; 'to help create change in the world'. Growing up in a lower income family, supported by social welfare and beautiful mother nature showed Melisa the importance of connection, communities and the Earth.  Melisa first enrolled in Law School with the goal to change the legal system to support connection, communities and the Earth. That goal has now evolved to assist people when they are in the legal system to take responsibility and connect to their own internal systems, so we can then create better external legal systems for ourselves, communities and the Earth.  Melisa intends to bring calmness and many perspectives when working with her clients to help them understand where the other person/party is coming from in a matter. Although, majority of Melisa's legal work is in the area of 'meeting of minds' and less in the area of 'litigation', Melisa often finds this approach very useful for diffusing potential disputes and encourages a synergistic flow for each matter, which often leads to more Love and Compassion for all of those involved.  If you are a lawyer who brings love into law in your own unique way, then we would LOVE to hear from you. Contact us at [email protected], or check out our projects at www.lawyersforlove.love.  ❤️