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LIBRARIANS: A MINDFUL START

PUBLICATIONS BY MEMBERS

• The Mindfulness in Law Society (MILS) is a community of legal professionals, students, and academics whose mission is to "coordinate and promote activities in the legal profession relating to mindfulness meditation, yoga, and other contemplative practices." Well-being and happiness in the practice of law are elusive for many practicing lawyers, judges, law professors and others in the legal profession. While it is no panacea, mindfulness meditation can offer a better path to lawyer well-being, and is now being encouraged by the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, the American Bar Association, the Conference of Chief Justices, and other leading professional organizations.

• The Institute for Well-Being in Law is dedicated to the betterment of the legal profession by focusing on a holistic approach to well-being. Through advocacy, research, education, technical and resource support, and stakeholders’ partnerships, we are driven to lead a culture shift in law to establish health and well-being as core centerpieces of professional success.
  
  In 2017, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (which, in 2020, became the Institute for Well-Being in Law) published The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. The report triggered concern and activity across the profession. Much has been accomplished in the several years since the report’s publication, but there’s much more work to do.

• Several universities with mindfulness centers offer free content: The University of Missouri-Columbia Mindfulness Practice Center, University of California, San Diego Center for Mindfulness, and UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC).
  

• Several law schools have mindfulness programs: Mindfulness at Berkeley Law, the University of Florida Levin School of Law's Initiative on Mindfulness in Law & Dispute Resolution, and Miami Law's Mindfulness in Law Program are three current law-school-based programs focused on mindfulness in legal education.  Stanford Law School Wellness Project provides suggestions for articles, teaching materials, and additional resources.

• The April 2016 issue of Florida Bar Journal is a special issue on mindfulness.  Available at the FBA website in both digital and text editions.

• Brostoff, Teresa and Sinsheimer, Ann and Burkoff, Nancy M., Mindful Lawyering (2014). Chapter 15 in Legal Writing: A Contemporary Approach (Ann Sinsheimer, Teresa Kissane Brostoff, and Nancy M. Burkoff, eds., West Academic Publishing, 2014) . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2730743 

• The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind) offers programs and resources for contemplative practices for all levels of education. The Center's archive provides links to its Law Program initiatives between 1998 and 2011.

• The Mindful Lawyer: Practices & Prospects for Law School, Bench, and Bar in October 2010 held at Berkeley School of Law provide audio and video resources from these events as well as links to additional resources.  The Mindful Lawyer Symposium in the Spring 2012 Journal of Legal Education provides multiple perspectives on mindfulness in legal education and practice.

• The "Mindfulness in Law" class at Miami Law convened the Mindful Law Student Conference in 2012. Video of conference panels are available on the Miami Law website.  
  

• Mindfulness Research Monthly is a newsletter of information on the scientific study of mindfulness. American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) publishes the newsletter and maintains the AMRA database.