This post is from Norma Levine Trusch, a Houston-based lawyer and Collaborative Law Institute of Texas Board Member, sharing from experiences from the collaborative law milestone celebrated several weeks ago:
June 11, 2010, was another red-letter day in the history of the collaborative law movement. At 10 a.m. on that day, the first meeting of the Collaborative Law Section of the State Bar of Texas was held in Fort Worth, in conjunction with the annual Texas State Bar Convention.
The meeting was preceded by an excellent presentation by Larry Hance, “Introduction to Collaborative Law.” The best part of the presentation, for me, was realizing how many incredible milestones we’d celebrated on our way to this historic meeting.
Texans first learned about the process in January 2000, and just two years later, we were hosting the third Forum of the International Academy of Collaborative Lawyers (IACP) in Galveston. From there, we invented the Texas Team Model of collaborative law, which is spreading rapidly around the world; several Texans have gone on to be leaders in the international movement. Collaborative Law Sections of local bar associations now exist in Houston, Dallas and Lubbock. And, most memorably, the Uniform Laws Commission formed a drafting committee, chaired by a Texan and with three Texas participants, to draft a Uniform Collaborative Law Act, which was passed by the commissioners in July 2009.
But back to the Fort Worth meeting: I had the distinct honor, as provisional Vice-Chair, to call the meeting to order and greet the more than 30 attorneys in attendance, many of whom came to find out just what collaborative law thing was all about. After approving the By-Laws of the Section we elected a slate of Officers (Kevin Fuller, Tom Ausley, Lawrence Maxwell, Jr., Harry Tindall, Janet Brumley, and me) and Executive Council Members (Brenda D. Keen, Anne Shuttee, and Sally Holt Emerson).
What was most gratifying to me during this meeting was to experience the unqualified support the Section has received from the Texas collaborative establishment. It was my pleasure to be able to announce that the Section had received a pledge of $10,000 in seed money from the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas.
Quite a few civil lawyers were in attendance, and Larry Maxwell was there to assure them that the core fundamentals of collaborative law, as outlined by Larry Hance, will transfer to resolving disputes in all areas of civil law. Several of the civil lawyers in attendance volunteered to participate as members of the Section’s Civil Law Committee.
Maxwell also reported the Uniform Collaborative Law Act will be before the Texas legislature in 2011.
The meeting was a high point of my professional career. It isn’t often that you’re able to see your dreams come true. The day I attended my first collaborative law training was a day that changed my life. I had found a way to practice law that corresponded with my values and standards of good practice. My dream was that one day it would become a part of the mainstream of legal thinking — and I believe that June 11, 2010, was that day.
I attended that meeting and was glad to see how well we as collaborative professionals were represented. Larry Hance’s presentation was very informative, especially for those of us who were not involved in the collaborative movement in the beginning. Norma did a wonderful job proctoring the sectional meeting that followed. The passion that was evident promises a bright future for our new section and for Collaborative Law. If you have not done so already, please go to your Texas Bar page and join the Collaborative Section. We need you!