Reflections Of Trauma-Informed Justice Training With Myrna McCallum

Before the Law stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country who begs for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot admit the man at the moment. The man, on reflection, asks if he will be allowed to enter later. "It is possible," answers the doorkeeper, "but not at this moment."

— Franz Kafka, Before the Law (1915)

I recently wrote about how Affective Advocacy should be considered essential for modern litigators. As stewards of the conflicts of others – particularly at a time when timely resolutions and access to justice are a vanishing horizon – we owe as much care and attention to our clients' experiences of the justice process as we do to the dogged pursuit of their outcomes.