The Wall Street Journal recently featured a story on the growing movement among law schools to provide “mindfulness” training for students. The article describes mindfulness as “[a] Zen-inspired blend of meditation, breathing exercises and focus techniques.”
As noted in the WSJ article, University of Miami School of Law is one of approximately two dozen schools offering mindfulness classes. According to its course catalog, Miami’s course is titled Mindfulness in Law: Cultivating Tools for Effective Practice. The course description notes that two local bar associations have formed the “Mindfulness in Law Joint Task Force” to explore mindfulness in practice. In the course, students are introduced to mindfulness “as a collection of tools of awareness that can enrich one’s skill set in relationship to the stimulating and challenging aspects of legal practice.” The full course description can be accessed here.
The WSJ story is available here.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
Best Practices for Legal Education 
Reblogged this on Curious Day Dreaming and commented:
Mindfulness is definitely something I wish they had incorporated into our curriculum in college. Maybe I would have been calmer and not have been so reluctant to study. Giving credits for partaking in the mindfulness course is a great incentive. All educational institutions should incorporate this into their teachings! Maybe in my next lifetime…
Great post! I just finished my law degree and I’m hoping it’s not too late to incorporate this into the rest of my journey! 😛 Thank you!
What a wonderful and timely post! I have started teaching a pre-orientation workshop on Mindfulness and the students’ interest in this topic was just overwhelming. As such, we are now offering an experimental course titled “Mindful Lawyering.” I was excited to see that the class was closed with a full wait list on the first day of registration. Please see my blog post re the same for Texas Bar Today at
http://blog.texasbar.com/2015/02/articles/news/mindfulness-matters-in-law-school/
All the best, Katerina Lewinbuk –South Texas College of Law