Laurel G. Kaufer, Senior Advisor to The Margolin Group, will receive the 2012 “California Lawyer” Attorney of the Year Award along with Douglas E. Noll. For 3 years, Kaufer and Noll have led a pro bono project, Prison of Peace, providing inmates at maximum security Valley State Prison for Women with training in mediation, peacemaking and communication skills. Inmates who participate often experience dramatic personal transformations. Graduates of the program are instrumental in de-escalating and resolving conflicts among fellow inmates and between inmates and staff. The program helps them re-discover their own humanity, become aware of their emotions and understand and reflect back the emotions of others. Mediation skills teach them to re-engage morally those who have become dis-engaged, and as a result, they naturally create better relationships within the prison and with their own families. The intense year long training program for inmates has additionally grown in-house Prison of Peace trainers, making Prison of Peace the first internally sustainable prison peacemaking program. The Margolin Group is proud of Laurel and honored to have her on our team.