J. Kim Wright

Upon graduating from the University of Florida with a Juris Doctorate, I was first sworn into the [State of Georgia] Bar in 1989. Since 1994, I have been a member of the North Carolina Bar, the only bar membership I maintain. 

In 2009, I was named as one of the first ABA’s Legal Rebels, “finding new ways to practice law, represent their clients, adjudicate cases and train the next generation of lawyers.”

I am a central figure in the Integrative Law Movement, an ecosystem of practitioners and organizations who are practicing law in innovative ways. 

My practice focused on humanistic, relational approaches in law. From collaborative divorce practice to restorative justice to relational contracts (and many others), I have practiced, pioneered, and promoted innovative models and ideas.  I am one of the co-creators of the Conscious Contracts(R) model with practitioners doing business in 20 languages around the world. I no longer actively practice law, now serving as a  coach, consultant, professor, author, and trainer.

I wear a lot of hats. I coach lawyers to design their lives in alignment with what matters to them. As a legal consultant, I work with companies and organizations on developing values-based legal documents and policies. I have trained hundreds of legal professionals on six continents. I am active in reinventing work, Spiral Dynamics, legal design, and Emergent Entrepreneurship. 

A Senior Fellow at the Quinnipiac University Center on Dispute Resolution Project for Integrative Law in Legal Education, I also teach an experiential simulation course on the Integrative Law Approach to Negotiation. I consult on adding integrative law approaches to curriculum in educational institutions around the world, including several in South Africa and Zambia. 

I am one of the co-editors of Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Practicing Lawyers and Pathway for Resilience and Healing (forthcoming, ABA, 2023) and the author of two foundational books for the global Integrative Law movement, Lawyers as Peacemakers, Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law (2010) and Lawyers as Changemakers (2016).  (Both books were originally published by the American Bar Association) I am a contributor to several books, including The Best Lawyer You Can Be: A Guide to Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Wellness by Stewart Levine (ABA Law Practice Management, 2018.) Lawyers as Changemakers book has been translated into Italian and we're working on French and Portuguese versions. I am working on several other book projects, including a micropublishing company. 

As a mother, step-mother, host parent, and foster mother, I had sixteen children live with me between 1977 and 2003.  I am a grandmother and great-grandmother.  Those relationships make the future very real to me and I feel a strong impulse to make the world a better place.