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Syllabus for Duke Law course titled "Well-being and the Practice of Law"

I have no doubt that many of you will find this syllabus of interest. Thanks to the course professor Dan Bowling for permission to post it here. Excerpt:

Course Title and Description: WELL-BEING AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW

Professor: Daniel S. Bowling, III. law.duke.edu/fac/bowling; bowling@law.duke.edu; dabowling@gmail.com; twitter@BowlingDan

        “The practice of law is not fully intelligible without reference to (the) great philosophical issues in ethics . . . (N)either is the practice of law fully intelligible without reference to the inner mind of each of us who engages in the practice of law.” - Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr.

"Well-being and the Practice of Law," will examine why the “pursuit of happiness,” a phrase written by a lawyer, has proved futile for many members of the legal profession and those aspiring to its ranks.There is considerable data (that predates the current recession in the legal market) indicating that lawyers and law students suffer from greater rates of depression and anxiety than other professions, along with accompanying social maladies such as substance abuse and stress-related illness. There is also considerable evidence of high career dissatisfaction among lawyers, and many others are leaving the profession or performing well below their capability. This seems unfathomable given the high levels of education, affluence, and respect lawyers enjoy (or will enjoy), factors which predict happiness and job satisfaction in other areas of life. Importantly, research indicates these problems begin in law school; that something happens between graduation from college and the beginning of practice that negatively impacts life satisfaction at a rate far beyond other professional or graduate educational models.

The class also focuses on a very important, but under-explored, question: what is the impact of all

April 13-15 in Phoenix: Lawyers as Peacemakers and Healers

News release:

Phoenix, AZ (April 4, 2012) – Phoenix School of Law (PSL) invites law students, lawyers, judges, mediators and other legal professionals to an exciting conference taking place on April 13-15th centered around an international law movement gaining more notoriety around the world known as Comprehensive/Integrative Law. The comprehensive law movement contains many models and practices. Some practices, such as peacemaking circles, originated among tribal societies. Others are more recent developments. At times, seemingly identical new models have arisen in different geographic areas. Different names developed, some of which are still used in making reference to the movement. Comprehensive law has been or is sometimes called integrative law, renaissance law, transformational law, visionary law, conscious lawyering, holistic law or holistic justice, creative lawyering, and relationship-based lawyering.

The conference begins on Friday evening which is open to the public and continues on Saturday and Sunday with various panels for interested legal professionals. “Phoenix School of Law is very

The Mindful Lawyer 2010 Plenary – Conference Opening and Introduction

Here is the description of this session from the conference Web site:

In this session, we will review the development of meditation and law as a growing area of interest in the law, reflecting on the core themes that will be explored during the course of the conference. We will introduce mindfulness practice, with a guided meditation. We will begin to explore what it means to engage with each other and with the substantive material in a mindful fashion, and discuss and review our hopes and aspirations for the conference and for the future growth of meditation in law practice and legal education.
Chair: Charlie Halpern
Speakers: Dean Christopher Edley, Charlie Halpern, Norman Fischer, Rhonda Magee, Doug Chermak

Click below to listen:

To join The Mindful Lawyer mailing list, and to hear about the next conference, send an e-mail to mindfullawyerconference@gmail.com. To learn more about the conference held October 29-31, click here.

New blog: Contemplative Law

Robert Chender who heads up the New York City Bar's lawyer meditation group has started a new blog. Click to read Contemplative Law. From the blog:

This blog will concern the application of contemplative practices, in particular mindfulness meditation, to the practice of law. Different topics will include stress management; contemplative listening; emotional intelligence; how to work effectively with difficult colleagues, opposing counsel and judges; dealing with law firm and organizational politics; how to handle being a perfectionist or working with perfectionists; conflict resolution; negotiating strategies; and the pursuit of happiness (that’s an unalienable right for lawyers, too).

In particular, mindfulness meditation has been shown to be helpful in decreasing stress and improving focus and performance, and is practiced by a growing number of  lawyers, judges, law students and law faculty around the country.

In defense of the California State Bar

In a post entitled What Has the World Come To?, lawyer and mediator Phyllis Pollack blogged about an incident that occurred during the administration of the CA Bar exam.

More than 600 soon-to-be lawyers were taking the California State Bar exams in the Pasadena Convention Center when a 50-year-old test-taker suffered a heart attack. Only fellow candidates John Leslie and Eunice Morgan stopped to help the man. They administered CPR until paramedics arrived, then resumed taking the test. Citing policy, the test supervisor refused to allow the helpers any additional time to make up for the 40 minutes they spent helping the victim. Jerome Braun, the State Bar’s senior executive for admissions, backed the decision stating, “If these two want to be lawyers, they should learn a lesson about priorities.

After reading it, I thought that the story just did not sound right. Off to Snopes I went and learned that, indeed, the story is inaccurate. Another sad fact is that a CLE company is using the story as the centerpiece of its marketing for a course. A good lesson in the need to verify before telling stories.

"Law Firm Levity Is Good for Your Health" - Three benefits of humor for lawyers

Here's an article I wrote several years ago for my law school alumni magazine. I begin:

A comic's nightmare is to realize the whole audience is composed of engineers, police, or lawyers. These three professions are reputed to be low on the sense-of-humor scale. Funeral directors are often ranked down there, too. And law firms often have the quiet somberness of a mortuary.—not much merriment goes on in busy law offices.

Fun and play are often considered unprofessional, yet absence of humor is a problem for the legal profession. Merry barristers are successful lawyers. Humor has many extraordinary benefits for people practicing law—three are briefly described here.

Click to read the rest of "Law Firm Levity Is Good for Your Health" (Santa Clara Law, 2001, winter/spring).

Blog Glob: "Economic Downturn Raising Suicide Risk Factors Among Attorneys"

Excerpt:

Lawyers tend to be overachievers whose legal training and working conditions can contribute to what studies -- most notably one by researchers at Johns Hopkins University -- suggest is a predisposition to depression and anxiety that can contribute to suicidal thoughts. Although it's impossible to pinpoint the many factors that may lead to suicide, the added stress of the economic downturn could be exacerbating that predisposition and pushing some people too far, they said. "You're not able to go to your friends or your family because they're in the same place," said Sherry Molock, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Maryland. "The economy is an equal-opportunity downfall for everyone right now."

...

The Dave Nee Foundation, named after a law student who struggled with depression and committed suicide in 2005, strives to educate law students about depression and prevent suicide among the students. Lukasik, a personal injury lawyer at Buffalo, N.Y.-based Cantor Lukasik Dolce Panepinto, discovered eight years ago when he was taking his turn serving as his firm's managing partner that he was suffering from depression. He now speaks to law schools, judges and lawyers' groups on the topic and is writing an American Bar Association-sponsored book on the subject. Meditation, exercise, spiritual practice and education can all help lawyers protect themselves against mental illness, he said.

Click to read the rest of "Economic Downturn Raising Suicide Risk Factors Among Attorneys" (National Law Journal).

Marry a Lawyer? Proceed With Caution

In keeping with Valentine's Day, Mark Jaroslaw is posting three blog entries at Lawyer Avenue. The first is by Fiona Travis, PhD, author of the book Should You Marry a Lawyer?: A Couple's Guide to Balancing Work, Love & Ambition. Excerpt from the post:

In recent years, some of America’s most popular TV programs and films depicted lawyers winning in court but losing in love. A distortion of reality, or do lawyers really have problems building and sustaining relationships? Regrettably, the image is accurate.

It’s not that lawyers lack relationship-building skills. But, overworked, overburdened and squeezed by time – and now, the worst downturn in two decades – lawyers do exhibit communication and intimacy breakdowns peculiar to their education, their professional training and work environment.

More to the point, the same traits that bring lawyers success in the workplace also interfere

Blog Glob: "Narcissists with Big Egos Lead Many Law Firms, Consultant Says"

Excerpt from "Narcissists with Big Egos Lead Many Law Firms, Consultant Says" (ABA Journal):

Narcissists who like to exert control and reject collaborative decision-making are leading many large law firms through major changes, according to a consultant and Altman Weil.

“Narcissistic leaders are distinguished by their big ideas, big personalities, big egos and general indifference to the opinions of others,” consultant Douglas Richardson writes in an Altman Weil publication. “They resolutely reject the status quo, thus affronting all those tied to tradition and cautious about change. They want to reshape the world to their vision. They don’t much care if others label them vain and self-centered; they count on the power of their vision and their personal charisma to drive them to the top during periods of great upheaval or change. Their style is at best despotic, and often coercive.”

Click to read the rest.

Blog Glob: "Lawyers Will Be Lawyers, Dumping More on Juries Than They Can Process"

Excerpt from "Lawyers Will Be Lawyers, Dumping More on Juries Than They Can Process" (Wall Street Journal):

When the high-profile prosecution of a Texas charity accused of helping Palestinian terrorists collapsed in a chaotic mistrial here a year ago, there were lots of theories about what went wrong, from government overreaching to a new political climate to a rogue juror.

But there was another problem, according to lawyers who followed the trial: Some jurors were bored and bewildered. They were buried under 197 counts and an avalanche of evidence, including hundreds of documents and dozens of wiretap tapes.

...

It's an occupational hazard: Lawyers, being lawyers, are loath to leave out a single stone of