Today while hiking in the mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico, I found myself thinking about a winter day years ago, when J. Kim Wright was staying at my home, which, in her own words, was also her home.
Before I went out into the mountains that day, Kim asked me to think of a graphic representation for a new project she was working on.
I went hiking on Mount Gorbea, the highest mountain in the Basque Country. It was midwinter, and everything around me was covered in snow.
As I walked, one image kept coming back to me.
A bee.
When I returned home, I felt a little embarrassed to tell Kim. But when I finally told her, we were both surprised and delighted by the synchronicity.
Kim was actually working on the graphic design of a panel for Cutting Edge Law, and somehow that little bee had already found its way into our shared ecosystem.
The connector, catalyst and ecosystem weaver
Long before being a digital nomad became common, Kim was already one. She sold her house in 2008 and dedicated herself to travelling around the world, mentoring, training and connecting lawyers who dreamed, worked and aspired to a legal systemic change. And I have been fortunate enough to be one of those lawyers.
Thanks to Kim, people and ideas from different parts of the world have entered my life and sometimes, quite literally, my home.
I have hosted Marguerite Picard a lawyer from Australia, as well as Canadian lawyer Julie Kirkpatrick while she was walking the Camino de Santiago. Rhiannon Thomas almost came to stay too. Although it did not happen in the end, we developed a meaningful online connection during 2020 and 2021.
There was also Alalâ, with whom I would love to reconnect.
And Glenn Meier, who ate at my home when he came in 2019 to provide training on conscious contracts. We were fortunate to reconnect in 2024 through the Empty Homes Collaborative (EHC) project, a collaboration that later remained on standby in the United States and that we now hope to resume.
These are just a few examples of the ecosystem Kim has helped weave around the world.
Kim was also the person who encouraged me to write about EHC for the IACP Review. What began as one article eventually became two: one in which I explained the project, and another based on an interview with Glenn.
This is what Kim does.
She connects.
But more than that, she creates the conditions in which connections can become relationships, collaborations, ideas and, sometimes, entirely new friendships .
Last Friday, August 21, Kim made it possible another magic connection.
His name is Tony Zelle, an Earth Lawyer.
We were supposed to meet for lunch in Santa Fe. But when we met, neither of us was hungry, so instead we walked through the city together.
As we walked, and we felt some very interesting connections, in many of which the connector, catalyst, and ecosystem weaver had been Kim.
Again and again, one person appeared somewhere behind those connections:
Kim.
The connector.
The catalyst.
The ecosystem weaver.
At one point, I told Tony:
“I really love Kim.”
His answer came immediately, and completely from the heart:
“Everyone loves Kim.”
I think those three words explain something important about leadership.
Because Kim has helped lead and mobilize lawyers around the world through the integrative law movement, but she has not done it by asking people to follow her.
She has done it by helping people find one another.
And perhaps that is where the bee becomes such a powerful metaphor.
Over the years, another animal has also become meaningful to me: the elephant. This connection is closely tied to an image I have always loved: the herd of elephants used to represent the Integrative Law movement. Over time, the elephant has also become a powerful symbol for EHC.
I admit that hiking Mount Gorbea that winter, my intuition did not lead me to elephants. Those connections came later, through lessons learned from Kim and the EHC project.
When we in EHC prepared a post about “the elephant in the room” which, for me, is the enormous opportunity represented by empty homes and empty rooms Kim reviewed it and helped me communicate the idea as clearly as possible.
And another memory comes to mind.
In 2020, Kim invited me to participate in an online session with students at Quinnipiac School of Law.
During my EHC presentation, there was an atom ant , which is what they used to call me at the tax administration , alongside a Mayan bee.
Words were unnecessary.
From one connection to another
And going back to the Earth Lawyer Tony, what was supposed to be lunch turned into a hike, this time with his family.
I have an unforgettable memory from that hike, immortalized in a photograph Tony took when I was not paying attention.
I was wearing a long dress.
It was the first time in my life I had gone hiking dressed like that.
Perhaps that photograph captures something of what Kim’s network has taught me over the years: the most meaningful paths are not always planned.
Sometimes you begin with lunch and end up hiking.
Sometimes you open your home to a stranger and discover a friend.
Sometimes you meet a lawyer and discover a friend, someone who also dreams big, shares your vision of transforming the legal system, and feels deeply connected to your values, interests, and passions.
That is what I have experienced with Tony. I hope that one day he and his family will come to Vitoria or Santander, where they have a home too.
And sometimes you climb a snowy mountain looking for an image and a bee appears.
A different kind of leadership
I could continue writing.
Talking about Kim could fill an entire book.
Perhaps one day we should write it together, all of us lawyers around the world who feel such deep admiration, affection and gratitude for her and for the work she has done.
Her journey continues.
Today, among her many contributions, she is part of the core team of the TEDLaw Project, focused on building future-ready lawyers and bringing human-centered transformation into the legal profession at scale.
But when I think about her contribution, I still return to that bee on Mount Gorbea.
Because perhaps the greatest leaders are not always the ones standing at the front of the room.
Sometimes they are the ones moving quietly throughout the ecosystem.
Connecting one person to another.
Carrying ideas between communities.
Creating the conditions for something new to grow.
Pollinating possibilities.
That is how a bee can be such a great leader.
And that is what Kim has done for so many of us.
