Audio

Restoring lives in the wake of trauma and serious crimeKelly McGrath

00:00 / 40:31

Listen on Spotify

Video

Kelly McGrath

Owner, Kelly Mcgrath Law

Mediator, Educator, Integrative Lawyer

Kelly McGrath, Esq., is the owner of Kelly McGrath Law, PLLC, a non-litigation law firm focusing on business and family law mediations, restorative justice cases, and collaborative divorce. Her practice in Tallahassee, Florida puts compassion and listening first and she has developed client protocols to ensure this.

We talk about her mission as a peacebuilder and how she has brought that into her work, something she demonstrates through example after powerful example of the law being an instrument of restoration and healing for people and communities after trauma and serious crime.

Bio:

Kelly McGrath, Esq., is the owner of Kelly McGrath Law, PLLC, a non-litigation law firm focusing on business and family law mediations, restorative justice cases, and collaborative divorce. Kelly founded the Florida Restorative Justice Association in 2013, a statewide advocacy group supporting the use of restorative justice in Florida. Kelly has a professional certificate in trauma and resilience and considers herself a trauma-responsive lawyer.

A large part of her practice includes consulting and training on strategic communication skills, conflict resolution, and grief, loss, and burnout in lawyers. Kelly is a frequent speaker at the Quinnipiac University College of Law presenting on the use of Nonviolent Communication in her practice.

Kelly is also the owner of Life After All™, a 3-month program supporting post-divorce or widowed women built around a faculty of professionals who provide one-on-one guidance for can healing, renewal, growth, and rebuilding; becoming the person they need to be for the next phase of their lives. The nationwide program includes a grief and loss counselor, a personal trainer, an estate planning attorney, and financial advisor along with lots of interaction and community, laughter, tears, and growth

Show notes:

[1:48] Kelly talks about her background in care and support, as a kindergarten teacher who studied law then moving to working as an attorney for the State of Florida. Her collaborative, gentle style naturally led her to discover a kinder way to practise law, including implementing initial empathetic listening sessions with her clients.
[5:23] Kelly includes empathy in her mediation work, by holding pre-conferences that also emphasise communication, values and mindset.
[7:39] In dealing with conflict, Kelly guides her clients through deep breathing and meditative practices, which are based on studies of human responses.
[11:16] Kelly's vision is of world peace and her mission is to help guide people through their most challenging conversations so they can resolve them through peace.
[14:38] Kelly introduces us to restorative justice by describing the case of 20-year old Ann Grosmaire who was murdered by her boyfriend Conor McBride and whose parents used restorative justice principles to heal as well as prevent Conor from being served the death penalty.
[17:41] In serious harm cases, such as rape and sexual assault, restorative justice can bring a degree of closure to the victim who can move on with their life. Kelly describes one such example that she worked on.
[20:09] Restorative justice models can co-exist with existing criminal justice processes. In the pre-trial stage it can work as a diversion program, for example, by establishing conditions of probation and avoiding incarceration.
[21:10] When the offender is in prison, it operates as a victim-offender dialogue that can help bring closure to victims and their families.
[23:13] Kelly also engages in training restorative justice facilitators and describes the type of training it might entail.
[26:29] Restorative justice can bring communities together, as Kelly explains through an example of a 12 year old boy who damaged a community centre, scaring an elderly neighbour. The diversion program resulted in the boy's family and the neighbour assisting each other and the community coming together to support them.
[31:14] Kelly advises young lawyers who are motivated to make change in the criminal justice system to speak to their supervisors with examples of how modalities like restorative justice work effectively and request training.
[32:32] Kelly continues to expand the idea of more empathy in mediation She shuns the billable hour in her work and works only on a fixed fee basis.
[35:32] In addition, Kelly continues to support the Florida Restorative Justice Association through continuing legal education programs.
[37:25] Finally, Kelly also runs as a side passion the Life After All program, which is a support program for post-divorce and widowed women to move forward through a network of supportive professionals such as personal trainers and financial advisers.

Links:

Kelly's website: kellymcgrathlaw.com

Dr Marshall Rosenberg's Center for Nonviolent Communication. Nonviolent communications is a process for supporting partnership and resolving conflict within people, in relationships, and in society. Dr Rosenberg was a psychologist, mediator, author and teacher.

Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

A Tallahassee Democrat news report on Conor McBride, who shot and murdered his fiancee Ann Grosmaire in 2011. Following restorative justice principles, McBride has just transferred to a lower security "incentivized" prison.

Florida Restorative Justice Association.

Australian Institute of Justice Administration article on Indigenous sentencing courts in Australia, which incorporate some elements of restorative justice.

Australian Institute of Justice Administration article on drug courts in Australia

Bio

Show notes

Links