The Kind Lawyers

21/08/2026

A quick shout-out to our Patron, The Honourable Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson SC or our ‘CLK’

Chrissa is not the sort of Patron who simply lends her name to something. She gets involved.

She has been working away with our Chair, Pepe, Angela Stevens and our Bond co-editor Dr Rachael Field on the inaugural Bond Law Review Special Issue on Kindness in Law.

Chrissa brings energy, ideas, wisdom, enthusiasm and a contact list that seems to include almost everyone with knowing 🤭. She is sharp, generous, deeply human and also very funny. We are very lucky to have her in our corner.

And, in amongst all of that, next month Chrissa will be walking 9 kilometres in Lifeline’s Su***de Prevention Walk.

https://www.outoftheshadowswalk.org.au/fundraisers/chrissaloukas-karlsson/out-of-the-shadows-2026

It is a very Chrissa thing to do: turning care into action and showing up for something that matters.

We will be cheering her on for every kilometre.

***depreventionwalk

01/06/2026

CALL FOR PAPERS: KINDNESS IN LAW
Since inviting contributions for the Bond Law Review Special Issue on Kindness in Law, we’ve received a surprising number of questions from potential contributors.
Most of them sound something like this:

❓ “I’m not an academic. Can I still submit?”
Yes.
The Special Issue welcomes contributions from practitioners, academics and professionals from other disciplines.

❓ “Does it need to be a thesis?”
No.
A journal article is not a thesis. It’s a focused contribution to a conversation.

❓ “Can practice experience become a journal article?”
Absolutely.
Many papers begin with a simple observation:
“I’ve noticed something...”
The scholarly task is exploring that observation through analysis, literature, authority and reflection.

❓ “Do I need to conduct original research?”
Not necessarily.
Originality can come from:
• A new framework
• A new lens
• A fresh application of an existing idea
• Bringing disciplines together in a new way

❓ “Can I write about a model, framework or methodology I’m developing?”
Yes.
We’re interested in ideas, including:
• Frameworks
• Practice models
• Training approaches
• Professional methodologies
• Multidisciplinary perspectives
The question isn’t where the idea came from.
The question is whether it advances understanding.

❓ “What if I’m developing a course, programme or commercial framework?”
That’s not a barrier.
Your intellectual property remains yours.
A journal article contributes to knowledge. It doesn’t function as marketing.

❓ “Can I collaborate with someone?”
Please do.
Some of the strongest papers emerge when practitioners, academics and professionals work together.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from our recent editorial discussion is this:
✨ Stop worrying about whether your idea qualifies.

Write it down.

If you’ve been sitting on an idea, framework, observation or question that keeps surfacing in practice, this may be the place to explore it. Send the team an email with any questions

[email protected]

📅 Submissions close 31 August 2026.
We can’t wait to see what emerges.

31/05/2026

The Bond Law Review of Bond University in collaboration with The Kind Lawyers invites submissions for a special issue exploring “Kindness in Law”, rethinking legal process, professional conduct, dispute resolution, and the broader systems within which they operate.

𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘.

This issue seeks contributions from legal practitioners, academics, and professionals across disciplines from all over the world who are interested in how kindness can function as a rigorous and responsible approach to law and conflict management.

We welcome papers that:
> Examine how law is experienced by individuals, families, practitioners, courts, and communities
> Explore ways legal work can be more values-aligned, responsive, and impact-aware
> Provide practical insights into reducing harm while maintaining professional rigour
> Engage with multidisciplinary perspectives, including co-authored work
> Critically reflect on the opportunities, limits, and risks of a “kind law” approach

Guest Editors: Perpetua Kish (Chair, The Kind Lawyers)
& The Honourable Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson (Patron, The Kind Lawyers)
General Co-Editor: Dr Rachael Field (Bond University)

Submission details:
Due: 31 August 2026
Word count: 8,000 to 10,000 words
Submit via Scholastica: https://lnkd.in/ggzTxrYK - LINK IN BIO
Include “Kindness in Law” as your first keyword in the Metadata

Enquiries:
Theme-related: [email protected]
Submission process: [email protected]

11/04/2026

We want to hear from you. At The Kind Lawyers, we are exploring what it truly means to practise law with kindness, even under pressure. Your experience is invaluable in shaping the tools, training, and culture that support lawyers to work more effectively and thoughtfully.

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey (…and a huge thank you do those who did so at our TKL Morning Tea at FLENA’s Disrupting Tradition)

Your honest responses will help us understand:
-What makes your work feel challenging or misaligned
-Where kind practice succeeds or struggles in real life
-The tools and training that genuinely change behaviour under pressure

For instagram - go to the link in bio to share your insights

For Facebook - https://ql04pu.ff17.fdske.com/e/c/01knr7900dp4272tgyrhzrtskq/01knr7900e4syft3y1xcrzz4tk

06/04/2026

We’re posting this because we like Angela Harbinson and we like backing good people doing good things and at this point that feels like reason enough.

But we also genuinely like what she’s building with The Separation Guide because it’s one of those things where the more you hear about it, the more you find yourself thinking… how is this not already a thing, why is this not bigger, and why are more people not talking about it?

It just makes good practical sense.

It gives people something Family Law has a habit of sometimes stripping away - choice, agency, direction, and even just a basic understanding of what is going on before they end up in a system they don’t understand and didn’t consciously choose.

That matters to me because a lot of what I care about in Kind Law and collaborative practice sits in that same space.

Connecting with people before they’re positional, reactive, fearful, and making huge decisions from that pretty ordinary headspace.

What Angela is doing gets in before that.
It helps create a better pathway into and through separation, and gives people a way to make sense of what is happening, and helps steer them toward supports that actually fit.

And there is real evidence behind it:
“The Separation Guide has built the only national dataset of its kind, drawing on insights from more than 45,000 people across the separation ecosystem, not just the people going through separation, but the multidisciplinary professionals supporting them across legal, financial, wellbeing, property and parenting and the wider systems that wear the cost when the whole thing goes badly.TSG has created the critical infrastructure to provide support, and predict and protect against harm identifying early risk of triggers for mental health, family violence and su***de. They use data for good, because if it’s predictable then it is preventable”.

That is a pretty significant thing to be building.

The Separation Guide has a limited investment round open for values aligned professionals to join.

If any part of this resonates, I’d suggest reaching out to

https://theseparationguide.com.au

14/12/2025

We are honoured to announce that the Honourable Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson SC has accepted our invitation to become the inaugural Patron of The Kind Lawyers.
 
Justice Loukas-Karlsson has long been a force for fairness and humanity in law. From her beginnings at the Aboriginal Legal Service and Legal Aid Commission, to her work before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and her appointment to the Supreme Court of the ACT, her career has been defined by courage, intellect and compassion in equal measure.
 
Her Honour left a lasting impression at our inaugural Kindness in Law Forum in 2023, when she reflected on the importance of “meeting people where they are at.” Those words have since become a quiet compass for our community by reminding us to truly listen and respond to the person in front of us: the human, not just their role or circumstance.
 
Justice Loukas-Karlsson’s patronage also embodies the four foundations of Kind Lawyering:
 
🫡Accountability, through a lifetime of advocacy that centres around dignity and responsibility.
🧬Connection, by how she seeks to understand others before judging them.
⚖️Alignment, through the integrity that bridges her values with her work.
🩶Community, through her ongoing mentorship of young lawyers and her commitment to justice that includes, rather than excludes.
 
We are deeply grateful to have her walking alongside us as we continue building a kinder, more connected profession.

11/10/2025