The Restorative Justice
Resource Center
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About J. Kim Wright, J.D., Advisory Board Member
J.
Kim Wright J.D. is one of our founders and a former member of our board.
She remains a valuable member of our Advisory Board. She is publisher of
CuttingEdgeLaw.com,
a web portal for transformative approaches to law which include
restorative justice, collaborative law, therapeutic jurisprudence, etc.
Formerly Associate Director of the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program Information and Resource Center (www.vorp.com) and the Managing Attorney of the Healers of Conflicts Law & Conflict Resolution Center, Kim is a pioneer in the movement to transform the legal profession and a proponent of using peace-making, healing, and problem-solving approaches in the law. With topics as varied as transformational law, collaborative practice, restorative justice, apology, and honoring conflict, she frequently speaks and publishes on topics related to bringing healing approaches into the law. Her articles have been published in many bar journals, Chief of Police Magazine, The Collaborative Review, and many other venues.
Kim was first introduced to Restorative Justice in the late 1990's at a conference on therapeutic jurisprudence. She quickly educated herself and became involved in the movement. In 2003, Kim was the director of a national Restorative Justice week which included participation of 35 different restorative justice organizations around the country. She spoke at the flagship event for the week in Portland, Oregon. While living in Oregon, she also met Marty Price and they began collaborating and consulting together. In addition to training and co-mediating with Marty, she has also consulted with producers of many television programs and other media about restorative justice. Kim has served on a number of task forces and boards regarding restorative justice, law, domestic violence and children's issues.
Kim has a systems and organizational development focus, having started her first organization as a rising ninth grader. She is a student of many organizational development tools including appreciative inquiry, parallel thinking, and social entrepreneurship. She brings those skills and interests to governmental and nonprofit organizations in training to create meaningful, enduring change.
In addition to being licensed to practice law since 1989, Kim's diverse career includes having been a foreign student advisor, a business owner, the executive director of a domestic violence program, adjunct faculty in business law, a community organizer, writer, coach, and speaker. She has also been the parent, foster parent, host parent, step-parent, and/or substitute parent for a total of sixteen children, all of whom are now adults.
Kim has served on several boards of directors including the Renaissance Lawyer Society (which she founded), the International Association of Holistic Lawyers, the Friends Committee on Restorative Justice, Carolina Institute for Conflict Resolution and Creative Leadership (CICRCL), Collablaw.org, and the Restorative Justice Resource Center (which she co-founded). She has taught Mediation and ADR at South College and Restorative Justice and Business Law at Warren Wilson College. In her various roles, Kim has educated and trained thousands of lawyers, coaches, law enforcement, probation officers, victim-advocates and others.
Kim is extensively trained in transformational approaches and is also a coach for lawyers who wish to incorporate peace-making practices into their own legal work. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law. In her spare time, she is interested in amateur web design (she manages 16 web sites including this one) and spiritual studies. A native of Florida, she travels extensively but often lives near Asheville, North Carolina.