Magistrate Gabriela McKellar, South Africa

In a recent writing*, Magistrate Gabriela explains her life’s journey:

"My life journey expresses my passion and purpose to work always and only, ‘for the children’s sake’."

Initially finding the practice of law toxic and acrimonious, she left the practice of law to become a full-time mother to her four children.  In 2008, she had cancer and the chemotherapy treatments forced her to pause and be still. In this stillness, she heard a calling to go back to law. Her children were older now and she listened to this call.  This time, she practiced law in a way in which she could integrate her values and be herself in her practice. 

She is now a Magistrate in the Children’s and Maintenance Court.  She has a master’s in Restorative Justice.  She incorporates restorative justice and integrative law principles in her Court. For instance, she started the “For The Children’s Sake” Mediation Project, for which she organized a team of volunteers to mediate litigation matters before the Children’s and Maintenance Court. The mediators volunteer on Saturdays and they are trained to shift the parties’ emphasis on the children.  This project was recognized by The Hague Institute for Innovating Law in 2019.  

Note, her official and formal title is Magistrate. However, in conversation, she said to simply call her Gabby.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why she hated the practice of law for the first five years of her practice, which led to her leaving the practice to become a full-time mother and support her husband’s career (minister of a church)
• How cancer gave her the time and space to hear her inner voice speak her calling
• Her experience in returning to the practice of law after taking several years off to raise her children
• Her discovery of Restorative Justice – she was looking for meditation training materials and found some materials on Restorative Justice.
• The difference between Restorative Justice and mediation
• How she incorporates Justice in her courtroom and practice
• Family-Friendly Courtroom: stuffed animals and toys for children; empowering children by allowing them to wear her robe; listening to the children and their needs
• For The Children’s Sake mediation project
• How developing and living with compassion and wisdom is a driving force in her life, for which she prays daily
• Setting the tone in her court as one that solves the child’s problems, not one that rewards or punishes the parents
• Some life lessons and inspiration
• Enjoy the season that you’re in. Life has different seasons. One tends to compare themselves to others who are in a different season and this leads to suffering and causes one to miss the joys of their own season. (@21:55)
• Experiencing yourself as a living contradiction (@1:08:56 – 1:11:00)
• What being an integrative lawyer means to her
• Having authenticity in your practice and giving space for different types of lawyers so people can be themselves and not a portrayal of what a lawyer is supposed to be like
• Law is about organizing and governing human relationships
• How practicing with restorative justice and integrative law practices changed her from hating her legal practice to loving it.

*https://www.wcpp.gov.za/sites/default/files/Biography-%20Mckellar%20G.pdf

For the Children’s Sake Mediation Project:  Having volunteer lawyers, in private practice, volunteer on Saturdays to mediate for family law cases.

For details on this project listen, starting at 1:12:46 and visit the provided link.

Notable Moments:

What does integrative law, or what does being an integrative lawyer, mean to you?

31:42: “Law is all about governing relationships”

32:32: “For me, we are in a profession whose main business is the business of human relationships, then surely we ought to want to be people who heal relationships because that speaks to social cohesion…”

32:36 “ …We all talk about wanting peace on earth, but we aren’t going to get peace on earth if we aren’t restoring, rebuilding, and repairing  broken relationships in our society, our community, in the business world, in the environmental world, in the family sphere, in the schools, wherever it is.”

33:02: “It feels like somebody hijacked the legal profession and it became a profession of adversarial winner -loser, rewarder – punisher, and we completely lost sight of the thread of understanding that as legal practitioners, we should be in the business of healing relationships.”

(@ 36 seconds)

How do you work with your team, and not to or for them?  Listen to Magistrate McKellar discuss how this shift to “with” has a significant and profound impact on leadership and meaningful change.  

(@51 seconds)

How do you think being an integrative lawyer will change the way you feel about practicing law? For Magistrate McKellar, it changed her from hating the practice of law to loving it.

(@ 1 min)

“There must be a better way to practice family law.”

(@ 1 min)

Cancer gave her the time and space to hear her calling.  

(which led to her creating an integrative law practice in her courtroom and community)

This podcast features the song “Panu’s Bandstand” by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2020, available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/texasradiofish/62499 Ft: Panu

A video version of this episode is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7R-_wylJ2YQ-uLUPzRJ61bXgRxvGLulY