Summer vacations are over and schools are back in session. As we resume our fall routines along with students, you may be surprised by how many of those students are homeless, attending school full-time and yet without a stable place to live. In Marin. This month, Anna Pletcher takes a look at youth homelessness in Marin with a particular eye to how we as lawyers can help. I encourage everyone to read her article and consider what skills you have that could help keep a Marin youth at home and in school.

My sense is that as Marin lawyers, we have a higher than average satisfaction with the profession, which isn’t hard given the dismal national statistics. I’m sure one factor is our engagement with the community, like helping out homeless youth. Are our clients more satisfied than average? I hope so but again, it is a low bar. Why is this? I explore at least a piece of the answer and a direction for improvement in an article on the integrative law movement.

Integrative law is making the law less isolated from other disciplines with the hope of better and more fully serving our clients’ needs and improving our satisfaction as practitioners. With some of its innovations we may ask why we haven’t always practiced this way and others will be controversial. I profile three of our own Marin lawyers, looking at what integrative practices they bring to Marin and seeking their views on the changing profession. I hope it will inspire you to delve into something new for your practice.

What does Bobby Kennedy have to teach us as lawyers? Charlie Dresow examines what we can learn about closing arguments from Kennedy’s speech after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But even if you never step inside a courtroom, I urge you to read Charlie’s article for the speech itself, for it could not be more apt to what is happening in our country today, nearly 50 years later.

I am excited to introduce a new recurring column: “The Gossip According to Matthew.” The omniscient and omnipresent Matt White is spicing up news of our local bar with greater coverage of events and people. While his column won’t be revealing any dirty secrets (darn!), we hope it will bring you more news of interest about goings on about town. And since Matt isn’t actually omniscient and omnipresent, we are asking for your help. Please send events of interest, items about what you or your colleagues are doing, or anything else you think might be of interest to our members to Matt. Let us know what you think and how you feel about the title—should we call it something besides gossip?

I have authored our member profile this month about Jon Rankin and his new novel. Learn what inspired him, what it’s about, how he writes and how you too can be a famous author (okay, I made that last one up.) And our own Kathie Gaines authored our nonprofit profile of MarinArts, an exceptionally useful resource for all things cultural in Marin and one that Kathie is affiliated with.

Finally, so far for the October issue, Judge Talamantes will bring you our Judge’s Corner and I will discuss my journey with the practice of meditation, how it can help you and how it helps tens of thousands of soldiers and veterans thanks to a local non-profit. Please let me know what you’d like to see in the Marin Lawyer and how it can be most useful to you. Or get in touch if you have an idea for something you’d like to contribute. In the meantime, enjoy the start of fall. Corner me the next time you see me, call me or you can email me with your thoughts.