Peter Lustig 

Lawyer,  mediator, collaborative practitioner, coach

 

Peter Lustig is a lawyer and mediator based in Melbourne, Australia. As a collaborative practitioner, he is interested in healing and peacemaking: resolutions, not least-worst-outcome settlements. As a coach, he is involved in men's groups including adult male rite of passage programs with a not-for-profit called Mankind Project Australia.  

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In this episode, we talk about how lawyers - like health professionals - are facilitators of heroic healing journeys and how that shows up in our life stories, including Peter's own epic legal battle with an iconic Australian corporation.   

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Bio

Show notes

Links

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Bio:

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Peter Lustig has been a lawyer for over four decades.  In that time, he says he has transitioned from being a head-kicking adversarial gun for hire, towards the more human approach of helping people understand why conflict is in their lives and what it is there to teach them. He specialises in family law, estate planning and disputes, employment law, construction, insolvency and shareholder disputes and commercial rental disputes. 

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Peter has also been involved in personal growth and particularly, men’s work for decades.  He is the immediate past chair of the not-for-profit ManKind Project Australia Ltd; a charity which runs adult male rite of passage programs to assist men to become authentic and be the men they were always born to be.  

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Show notes:

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• [1:39] Peter explains how childhood trauma and experiences as a young man equipped him only to deal with conflict through fight, flight or freeze responses, For him, a good part of being  an adversarial lawyer was arrogance.
• [3:38] Creating one's own rites of passage is part of the journey into inquiring about one's purpose.  Doing his own inner work led Peter to see his clients were becoming entangled with the law  because there were lessons they were resistant to learning.
• [7:49] I discuss with Peter the parallels between our profession and the medical profession, and between traditional legal practice which resolves conflicts superficially and allopathic medicine, which treats symptoms only. 
• [10:35] Just as our bodies express psychological trauma as physical ailments, conflict shows up in our lives to demonstrate to us what is going on within us.
• [14:26] Peter's shares his own bruising experiences in a long-running legal dispute with Qantas, which began with an incident while he was boarding a flight from Sydney to Melbourne with a client. 
• [18:27] The proceedings Peter was embroiled in involved defending a felony charge with a potential  significant custodial penalty.  Peter was successfully cleared of the charge on appeal.
• [20:11] Following resolution of the criminal proceedings, Peter and his client launched civil action against Qantas in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal .  Eventually, Qantas succeeded in arguing the Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.  
• [22:49] Peter's overall lesson from the epic battle with the iconic Australian company is that it was humbling, and he would do things differently if he could go back to the moment that set it off, The dispute became about entitlements, and the relationship aspects were lost in the heat of legal battle.
• [26:09] From Peter's personal saga, we move to the men's groups he leads, which are adult male rite of passage programs taking young men through wilderness journeys where they conquer challenges and integrate the experiences upon return, all in a safe space overseen by other men who have experienced the same. 
• [29:54] The programs encourage alignment of the heat, heart and belly; authenticity; and checking in with emotions.
• [33:45] We talk about how women typically process and heal trauma differently, being moved to nurture in a maternal sense as opposed to directing efforts towards fixing as men traditionally do.
• [37:11] Peter explains how lockdown exacerbates conflict and we can use it as an opportunity to identify triggers.
• [38:44] Being a better human being is the aim, which will lead us to be better lawyers - better in everything we do.
• [40:15] Peter relates 2 powerful stories of resolution in a partnership dispute and a divorce settlement which shows that ultimately resolving all interpersonal conflict comes down to reminding ourselves of our relationships with the people around us. 

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Links:

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Peter's website: https://peterslustig.net/

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Bill Plotkin, depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. Founder of Animas Valley Institute which organises guided immersions into nature. 

Bill Plotkin's first book: Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and the Psyche. 

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The website of Amy and Arny Mindell. Arny Mindell is the founder of process-oriented psychology. 

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The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk.

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Lustig v Regina [2009] NSWCCA 143, the quashing of Peter's conviction in 2009.

Qantas Airways Limited v Lustig [2015] FCA 253,  Federal Court decision finding VCAT had no jurisdiction in Peter's civil action.

 

Joseph Campbell Foundation dedicated to the legacy of Joseph Campbell, American mythologist, writer and lecturer. 

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Mankind Project Australia. not-for-profit organisation and holders of a sacred, male rite-of-passage ritual. 

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Pathways Foundation, a not for profit organisation assisting young people to make a healthy and timely transition from boy to young man and girl to young woman.

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It's Not About the Nail, short video on the differences between how men and women solve problems.

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