A Resource for Strength and Direction

(Written by Nan Barker, WIL Committee chair.)

Members of the International Women in Law Committee have been participating in a leadership training program.  It includes reading, writing, mentoring, etc.  One of the assignments has been to read the second volume of "Life in the Law".

"Life in the Law" is a three volume set of talks given by a variety of people and compiled by the J. Reuben Clark Law School.  The first volume is entitled "Answering God's Interrogatories", the second is "Service and Integrity" and the third is "Religious Conviction". You can access all three volumes by going to this site: Life in the Law.

"Service and Integrity" is broken up into four sections: Be Ethical, Be Healers, Be Professional and Be Servants.  Talks were contributed by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Judge Thomas B. Griffith, Professor Cole Durham, Elder Neal A. Maxwell and Kenneth W. Starr, to name a few.

This month's assignment was to read "Be Healers".  The talks were insightful and grounding.  Some highlights for me from President James E. Faust's talk, "Be Healers" were the following:

"To be fully successful in the law, one does not have to be brilliant or exceptionally gifted.  The most effective work of the world is done by ordinary people who put forth extraordinary effort."

"The kind of a lawyer you are depends in large measure upon your character.  If you are going to point the way, you need to be more than skilled advocates  You need to be decent human beings trying to solve problems.  You need to be teachers as well as advocates and draftsmen."

"Before the wounds of injustice can heal, there must first come a feeling of peace.  So, in a sense, a lawyer who helps make peace becomes something of a healer."

Check out "Life in the Law".  You, and those with whom you associate, will benefit because of it.