On 14 October 2010 the conference room at the Appeals Tribunal welcomed a conference organized by Communion and Law, which was entitled “Comparing European and North American systems: the client-attorney relationship.”

The initiative, which was inserted among the events of ethics training, has been approved by the Council of the Bar of Rome.

Some 150 legal practitioners, lawyers, judges, and students were in attendance at the three-hour meeting conducted by Lawyer Carlo Fusco, who also shared the mission statement of Communion and law.

n a presentation entitled “The Role of the Lawyer’s Conscience in Client Counseling:  A North American Perspective,” Professor Uelmen reflected:  “Participating for the past several years in discussions about the role of conscience and personal faith in professional life, my sense is that following one’s own conscience, and learning how to express one’s own convictions with sincerity, has made lawyers more, not less, sensitive to the complexities inherent in questions of identity, power dynamics and social context.”

The talk by Attorney Giuseppe Sbarra, on “Mediation” and “civil mediation” was greatly appreciated. It presented mediation as a way of overcoming the culture of conflict by recognizing in it an element of social cohesion.

In the final report presented by Attorney Maria Giovanna Rigatelli from the Central Commission of Communion and Law, he described his experience of many years in an international network of lawyers for the training of practitioners. Lawyer Rigatelli gave voice to the experiences of practitioners from different parts of the world, first steps, accompanied by theoretical insights which show how to implement “fraternity” even in the legal field that can start giving shape to a new culture of law.