Transforming law and lawyers through spiritual guidance

• Main Author: Barnes, Thomas Carl, II
• Language: EN
• Published: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology 2013
• Subjects: Law|Spirituality
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1546173

<p> This paper studied lawyers and spirituality and the potential benefits of offering spiritual guidance to lawyers, both personally and in connection with their law practices. This paper explored how spiritual guidance might be of particular service to lawyers (a) who identify as spiritual but not religious, and (b) who do not identify as spiritual or religious, but who have high aspirations for how the practice of law might best occur as a meaningful vocation for themselves as lawyers and as a valuable service to their clients and to society. The general questions intended to be explored in this paper were: (a) whether and how spirituality can be incorporated into the provision of legal services, (b) what transformations might be effected in the legal profession though attorneys cultivating spirituality into their lives, and (c) what role spiritual guidance might play in the process. The method used in this paper was qualitative; in particular, organic inquiry. Four practicing attorneys were interviewed. Participant attorneys completed a written questionnaire and were asked to respond to prepared questions in the individual interviews. A group process with all of the participant attorneys and the researcher occurred. </p><p> The results of this paper show that the participant attorneys have incorporated their unique sense of spirituality into their law practices. The results also indicate the perceived obstacles to the incorporation of spirituality into the practice of law and to the receipt of spiritual guidance. The results of this paper suggest that spiritual guidance might be a useful service to attorneys, both personally and professionally.</p>