Trauma-informed lawyering is a new and invaluable tool for Maine lawyers, one that Berman & Simmons attorneys Michael T. Bigos and Elizabeth A. Kayatta have embraced as leaders of the firm’s Sex Abuse Survivors Practice Group. In this article “Maine Practice: Big Advancements in Trauma-Informed Lawyering and Sex Abuse Survivor Claims” originally published in Maine Lawyers Review the pair explains this emerging approach, where attorneys develop interpersonal skills to better show empathy, compassion, and respect for clients who are survivors of trauma. In fact, the general principles of trauma-informed lawyering stand to benefit attorneys across all practice areas— from probate law, to domestic relations, to criminal defense—by reframing common interactions to equalize the power imbalance between attorney and client.

Berman & Simmons has represented survivors of childhood and adult sex abuse throughout Maine, New England, and beyond—involving institutional defendants such as the Boy Scouts of America, Catholic Church, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Salvation Army, and other private entities.