Attorney Kimmel—Legal Counsel for the Mind, Body, and Spirit.

James P. Kimmel, Jr., J.D.

WELCOME!

Welcome to AttorneyKimmel.com...the only place where you'll find legal advice for your mind, body, and spirit!

What exactly do I mean by that?

I mean legal advice to help improve your overall material, emotional, and spiritual well-being. You're probably well-aware of the mind/body/spirit movement in medicine. Physicians such as Andrew Weil, M.D. and Deepak Chopra, M.D. have discovered that medical outcomes improve when doctors take into account the whole patient--mind, body, and spirit. Well, I've made a similar discovery in the law. It turns out that legal outcomes also improve when attorneys take into account the whole client--mind, body, and spirit. How?

Let's stay with the analogy to medicine for a moment. Doctors have discovered that defining success simply as the absence of diagnosable disease is too narrow a focus. Patients are more than mere organs, tissue, and bone. They have emotional and spiritual needs that interconnect with their physical needs in important ways. Failing to acknowledge and address these needs leads to lower cure rates and even to the onset of more disease. Hence, the goal of medicine is now becoming overall patient wellness, not merely conquering disease.

In a similar way, I have discovered as a lawyer that defining success simply as winning a case or a negotiation is too narrow a focus. Clients are more than mere plaintiffs and defendants with legal problems. They also have emotional and spiritual needs that interconnect with their legal needs in important ways. I have seen that failing to acknowledge and address these needs leads to lower dispute resolution rates and the onset of even more conflicts and legal problems. Hence, the goal of law must become overall client happiness, not merely conquering one's opponents.

But think for a moment. Who would you consider to be a truly great lawyer? The one who fights every battle to the bitter end with no holds barred, destroying everyone and everything in her path to achieve a victory? Or, would it be the one who resolves the conflict and restores her client's peace and happiness in the least amount of time and with the least amount of physical, emotional and spiritual damage?

Unfortunately, many people think they need a lawyer who is a ruthless mercenary to restore their happiness when they've been wronged. But like all warfare, they don't realize until the battle is over just how much it cost them--physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

I would offer the name of Mahatma Gandhi as one of the greatest lawyers of all time. Why? Because he resolved a volatile conflict between two powerful nations, Great Britain and India, without resorting to warfare. He restored peace and happiness to these nations with a minimal amount of suffering. Quite an accomplishment. Yet Gandhi was no mercenary. Rather, Gandhi observed that "the true function of a lawyer [is] to unite parties riven asunder."

The legal profession in the United States has strayed far from this ideal. The function of many lawyers today seems to be to rip parties apart, not reunite them. Lawyers are hired to sever the bonds between families, friends, businesses, communities, and even nations. We file 36 million lawsuits in the United States each year.

But there's change in the air. I was once a chief offender of Gandhi's vision of the legal profession. I graduated from an Ivy League law school, interned as a criminal prosecutor, clerked for a federal court judge and worked for two of the most prestigious law firms in the country. In the process, I developed a scorched earth strategy that left nothing standing when I finished a case. Representing both rich and poor, I won more cases than I lost; but I realized something rather astonishing along the way. The more justice I won for my clients, the less happy my clients and I became. This created a crisis in my career and led me, over the course of many years, to study the justice teachings of the world's religions and then on to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi himself.

When I adopted Gandhi's vision for practicing law and began taking into account my clients' emotional and spiritual needs--not just the needs of their pocketbooks or mine--I experienced something remarkable. I was able to do what fewer and fewer lawyers today seem able to do. I was able to win peace and happiness for my clients, not just win lawsuits.

I hope to win these things for you too. How? Here are eight ways:

First, I've published a book about my journey from legal mercenary to peacemaker. It's called Suing for Peace: A Guide for Resolving Life's Conflicts (without Lawyers, Guns, or Money). In this book, you'll learn the secret I discovered to resolving any conflict. My intention in writing this book was to give you everything you need to win the most important trials of your life...without lawyers, guns, or money. To learn more about what this book can do for you and to order a copy, click here.
Second, by creating this website, www.AttorneyKimmel.com, I'm providing you with a free online forum where you can find information and ask me questions about law, spirituality, conflict resolution, and nonjustice.
Third, I've founded a nonprofit organization called the Nonjustice Foundation (www.nonjustice.org). The mission of the Nonjustice Foundation is to resolve conflicts, promote peace, eliminate suffering and restore happiness to individuals, communities, and nations through the teaching of nonjustice. At the Nonjustice Foundation website, you can obtain free access to my first-of-it's-kind Nonjustice System that can resolve any conflict and restore your peace and happiness within minutes--again, without lawyers, guns, or money.
Fourth, coming soon here to www.AttorneyKimmel.com, I will be unveiling the first ever online automated conflict resolution service. For a nominal fee (a tiny fraction of the amount you would pay a lawyer), you will be able to obtain meaningful help in resolving the conflicts in your life. Please check back here soon for the grand unveiling of this innovative service.
Fifth, I'm speaking about law, spirituality, and nonjustice all around the country. Look for me on your favorite TV and radio talk shows, newspapers and magazines. You can also contact me if you'd like me to speak to your business, school, civic, or religious organization.
Sixth, look for my new Suing for Peace Guidebooks coming soon. These books will help you resolve specific types of conflicts like family strife and divorce, personal relationships, business disputes, personal injury, crime victims, small claims, and student disputes (teenagers).
Seventh, if you enjoy reading fiction, you'll want to look for my new novel NEVAEH, coming soon. NEVAEH is a legal thriller with a twist. Set in the afterlife, it's about a young female attorney forced to choose between prosecuting and defending the soul of her own murderer at the Final Judgment. NEVAEH was a semi-finalist for the 2003 University of Tennessee Press/Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel.
Finally, I am also available on a limited basis to consult with you personally. Click here for more information.

I'm honored that you've visited AttorneyKimmel.com today. Stay as long as you like. I want to help you resolve the conflicts in your life and restore your happiness. As Mahatma Gandhi said, my true function as a lawyer is to unite parties riven asunder.

Peace for this day,

James P. Kimmel, Jr., J.D.

"I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby--not even money, certainly not my soul."

Mahatma Gandhi