BarBri Offers Mindfulness Training

BARBRI, one of the nation's most popular bar review courses, has broken important new ground by introducing a four-week mindfulness training as part of its bar prep training. In this cutting-edge offering, Christy Cassisa, BARBRI's Director of Professional Effectiveness, shares a series of four trainings to help those studying for the bar during this challenging and intense period in their professional development.

A link to these trainings--which BARBRI has generously made available to everyone studying for the bar--can be found by clicking here (scroll down to the bottom of the page). Each week beginning June 25th, a new training is made available, integrating a discussion of the mindfulness with experiential practices. Christy Cassisa (a friend whom I admire very much for her integrity and ability to effectively communicate mindfulness) developed the training in collaboration with the highly regarded University of California San Diego's Center for Mindfulness.

BARBRI is to be credited with making this important innovation in its bar review training, following smartly on the heels of the role mindfulness is beginning to have within legal education.

What is perhaps most important is that by introducing lawyers to mindfulness at this critical period in their careers, BARBRI may be playing a fundamentally important role not only in the life of the young lawyer, but across the legal profession and society.

Mindfulness in Law Workshop for Miami Lawyers, Judges, and Law Professors

The Mindfulness in Law Joint Task Force of the Dade-County Bar Association and Federal Bar Association (South Florida Chapter) will be holding a Mindfulness in Law Workshop on May 17th at the University of Miami School of Law. Click here to learn more.

A Law School Dean on Mindfulness and the Law

In her recent article in the San Francisco Daily Journal, Golden Gate University Law School Dean, Rachel Van Cleave, wrote on the future of the legal profession, concluding with these words on the role of mindfulness.

'Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we all need to find a way to quiet the noise around us in order for us to cultivate a less anxious and reactive posture. Responding to "the crisis" with a reflective, purposeful and mindful approach can help us internalize and live up to the aspirations of our profession. Over the last 10-15 years, more lawyers, judges, legal educators and law students have incorporated mindfulness practices into their lives and careers. A number of law schools offer courses on "mindfulness for lawyers." Reflection and mindfulness helps law students and lawyers of all sectors become better listeners, better problem solvers, better counselors at law, and better colleagues. A focus on conscious lawyering has great potential for helping lawyers develop attributes that are essential to happiness and satisfaction: empathy, resilience and wisdom. I believe that such an approach can allow law students and lawyers to respond with flexibility and calm in rapidly changing times."

Golden Gate is fortunate to have Judi Cohen, as a members of its faculty. Judi is founder of Warrior One and has been sharing mindfulness with law students, attorneys,and judges for many years.

You can read Dean Van Cleve's article by clicking here.

Law as a Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness is often looked to as a salve for a challenging and stressful work life. Its connection to the law and to the lives of law students, lawyers, faculty, and judges is growing. Less considered is law practice as a mindfulness practice. Yet it can be worthwhile to consider the wisdom inherent in the unorthodox answer to this question:

Question: "I am interested in becoming a more mindful person. What should I do?"
Answer "Become a lawyer."

The great paradox is that while legal professionals feeling overworked, overstressed, underwhelmed, and unhappy are turning to mindfulness to ease their distress and help them relate more effectively to the challenges they face (and, to be sure, mindfulness is helpful in this regard), and they often wish they could have a little less law in their lives--learn to say "no," avoid hostile opposing counsel, get out of the office at a reasonable time--it is the practice of law itself that serves among perhaps the greatest mindfulness practice opportunities. We could term this "reciprocal practice."

But to more fully appreciate this is to understand how things can change (including one's ability to say "no," more often, avoid hostile counsel or no long perceive them as so hostile, and more easily (with less guilt or fear) leave for home at the end of the day) by seeing the moment more clearly for what it is--including the thoughts, feelings, and sensations arising inside us during those moments.

As it is sometimes said that a powerful place to practice mindful sitting is on the streets of New York, so too a powerful place to practice mindfulness during the day is right where you find yourself-practicing law. While there is much more to the decision to practice law than its potential as a mindfulness practice, for those of us in the legal profession, this insight can be helpful when looking for meaningful ways to practice and cultivate mindfulness. As is so often the case, the answer if found right in our own backyard.

Mindfulness in Legal Education Conference at Berkeley Law

This June (6-9), the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law will be hosting the nation's first conference focusing primarily on integrating meditation into law schools. Educators from around the country will be coming together to explore and advance this important conversation. Click here to learn more.

Mindfulness and the Law: The Law and Mindfulness

There is a natural tendency among many of us to think that the legal profession will benefit from a strong dose of mindfulness and that, perhaps in time its growing presence in the law will transform the law. I suspect this is true.
It is not often that the opposite is considered as well; namely, that mindfulness will benefit from the law. The law is a system that evolved out of chaos. Mindfulness is a practice that recognizes the presence of chaos amid a larger body of wisdom and compassion. The law, at its best, offers members of society compassion and wisdom to heal wounds and minimize the suffering that can arise out of chaos.
It can be easy to look to contemplative practices as a vehicle to escape the chaos — as opposed to work with it. A great many practitioners talk about finding peace and relaxation. It is as if the objective is to eliminate the stress and the pain. Many of us, even if we feel this way, also recognize the larger perspective.
The law grapples with chaos constantly. Suffering is evident in the law--across the many contexts in which it is applied. Mindfulness will make its mark early on by helping those in the legal profession see more clearly their own suffering and offer a path to greater clarity and well-being. As it does, lawyers and others in the profession will find a greater spaciousness to bring about more just and present outcomes. This will require keen awareness and courage in the midst of struggle.
I believe that as more lawyers integrate mindfulness into their practice, and begin to interact with with more mindfulness practitioners, it will help transform much of the ways that mindfulness is considered, explored and practiced.
(originally published April 23, 2010).

"Creating a Mindful Society" workshop with Professor Rhonda Magee

Join Law Professor Rhonda Magee, Congressman Tim Ryan, Saki Santorelli, and Susan Gillis Chapman for what is sure to be a powerful mindfulness practice experience. The retreat. "Creating a Mindful Society" takes place September 27-29, 2013 at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. Click here to learn more.