The opportunities for offering training and teaching with the Conscious Contracts® model are growing and we are actively recruiting and training additional teachers and trainers.

Taking the course may have it look deceptively easy.  You don’t see all the moving pieces, the backend, and the knowledge that goes into making it seem easy!

It is not just a substantive course.  Yes, there is much to learn about the model.  But, much has to do with mindset and having an overview of the many situations that might come up. 

We are creating a community of teachers and trainers who can learn from each other and share their lessons. 

Over the last year or so, we have been informally developing an apprenticeship program for trainers and teachers. Several people are now certified to teach, including in languages other than English.  A pattern has developed and we are ready to make it a bit more formal, still allowing some flexibility.

If you want to train lawyers, you can choose the legal education track or the workshop track.  If you want to teach law students, you must choose the legal education track, although the skills of the workshop track will be useful and may work better in your schedule until an opening becomes available. 

All trainers and teachers must first be certified in the Conscious Contracts® model. 

Legal Education Track:

Kim has taught versions of classes at several law schools but the course has developed more fully at Quinnipiac University School of Law.  Quinnipiac has made the course a permanent part of their curriculum so we have predictable opportunities for apprentices, mentors, co-teachers, and eventually teachers.  We are reaching out to other law schools to open some more opportunities and we hope to have several law schools offering the course in the near future.

Teaching at the law school involves basically teaching the students what it means to be a lawyer: professionalism, time-management, and even some substantive law while also contrasting how we do things from what they’ve been taught elsewhere.  It is rewarding and often heart-warming. Most students find it to be life-changing and some find new purposes for their legal careers. 

Timewise, it is a 14-15 week commitment with about 4 hours of class time each week and time spent out of class.  Time out of class is spent reviewing documents (sometimes more than once), reading journals, coaching, mentoring, and supervising their work with clients. We teachers also learn to use Blackboard, a very common backend platform for tracking assignments. 

Only the named teachers get paid (and at adjunct rates, we are not doing it for the money.)

We start this track by having you mentor some law students, warming up to what is required and observing the classes.  The next level is to be an apprentice teacher, working alongside one of the certified teachers.  When you’re ready, you will teach your own class with the certified teacher helping to guide you along the way. Then you can take the lead and teach another apprentice and mentor some mentors. 

Workshop Track:

Workshops can be with lawyers, entrepreneurs, or a mixture of both.  By the time you are certified, you have seen the structure of a workshop from the front end.

Workshops can be more compact than law school classes:  12 hours for the basic training, spread out over some time.  Some other trainings may be focused on a certain community and include a more in-depth exploration over a longer time. After you’ve learned to teach the Basic, you can branch out into offering more complex programs which use your extra skills and talents.

In the workshop track, you also work with one of the certified teachers, learning how to present the materials, working with participants outside of class.  Most of the lawyers have figured out how to practice law and we’re adding a skill.  However, it is easy for them to view this through the lens of something they already know about so we are careful to make sure that the unique mindset is conveyed along with the materials.

For the workshops, you can call on any of the certified teachers for help.  You will work out the details, including finances, with them individually. The certified teachers are: 

• Alala Linda

• Kristen Boldt

• Fernanda Guerra

• Jacqueline Horani

• Chuck Kanafi

• Glenn Meier

• MariaClaudia Perego

• Rhiannon Thomas

• Carmen Aja Ruiz

• J. Kim Wright