At each ‘win’, however, someone else ‘lost’. There was, in adversarial court systems/ rooms, no opportunity for me to fulfil my childhood mission.  In separatist, combative court rooms with one-eyed submissions from partisan lawyers, there is no psychologically safe space for introducing wellbeing and healing to ALL those affected, which are tools to dissolve conflict.

In legal conflicts there is always disappointment, hurt, anger, pain, feelings of betrayal and frustration, yet there is no procedure in courtrooms for parties to directly address each other, express their feelings and emotions around the incidents, nor importantly, to restore damaged relationships.

My conclusion was that the straight jacket of the scaffold of adversarial systems cannot provide a forum for attaining peace for those in dispute. Without peace there can be no justice. Justice must be attained for all affected by conflict, not just for one party, otherwise the case closes but the conflict remains alive and justice has not been attained, not even for the ‘winner’ who will remain in the eyes of the ‘loser’, very much an enemy.

The client’s interests are what lawyers vow to protect upon entering legal practice.  If we are to exercise our duty of care thoroughly, we must support the dissolution of the conflict negatively impacting the clients’ mental, emotional, physical, financial and spiritual health, holistically.

"It is not possible to be in favour of justice for some people and not be in favour of Justice for all people." - Martin Luther King. Jr.