Picture a highly aggressive, successful, and hardcore commercial litigator who also holds a second-degree black belt in Northern Chinese Kung Fu—a type of street fighting whose motto was to break bones, not boards. But what if that lawyer has an epiphany that, rather than a career of confrontation and disagreement, he would rather pursue a life of peacemaking and bridge-building? That’s Doug Noll.

After switching to Tai Chi and earning a master’s in peacekeeping and conflict studies, Doug pivoted, refocusing on mediation and dispute resolution for family businesses. That move led him to develop a system of de-escalation techniques and interest-based negotiations. He quite literally wrote the book. Then, his desire for a life of service led him to restorative justice principles and the founding of the Prison of Peace (POP) project with his colleague, Laurel Kaufer.

Since 2010, POP has trained and mentored incarcerated men and women throughout California to enhance opportunities for rehabilitation through conflict resolution practices. The result? Inmates have engaged with fellow inmates over 48,000 times in peacemaking and conflict resolution processes, and prison violence has markedly decreased. As other states and countries implement POP, Doug continues his mediation work, flies airplanes and helicopters, is a jazz violinist and folk fiddler, and fly fishes. Don’t miss this Sticky Lawyer’s story.