Articles
Go slowly,
Breathe deeply
And smile.
21st century lawyering is demanding. Technology seduces us to be present, always, to everyone–except ourselves.
Two decades ago, in the midst of a hectic time in my legal practice, I stepped out of my routine to spend time with Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was traveling around the country offering five day silent retreats. I was moving into new territory and had an acute awareness of the wide disconnect between my courtroom presence and my presence in this space of sacred silence. Since then I have been engaged in the challenge of balancing reflection and action.
Years later, I was invited to address an annual gathering of Washington women attorneys on “Finding One’s Voice in the Practice of Law.” I began by suggesting that being still is the essential core of the answer. I had just completed a ten day Vipassana retreat. Again I was reminded of the power of silence. I have come to believe that to survive and survive well, a lawyer must engage in some form of mindful practice.
Mind And Heart Are Intertwined
Mindfulness is about bringing the heart-mind to this moment and to our work. In the language of many contemplative traditions, the words for “mind” and “heart” are not different. The Japanese character for mindfulness is two interactive figures: one represents mind and the other represents heart. They are not imagined as separate.
Mindfulness is about paying attention, a skill developed through mindful meditation. Mindful meditation is cultivated through the practice of sitting quietly, paying attention to one’s breath, and not repressing emotions or thoughts but simply allowing them to come and go within the field of awareness.
A Mindful Practice Is A Sustainable Practice
Sustainability is a hot topic. We buy cars that are hybrids, build houses that are green, find ways to use and reuse shopping bags. Consider the implications for how we practice law. Doing business as usual is no longer an option. We put creative energy and money into preserving our planet. We must also consider ways to conserve the legal profession’s most precious resource—people.
A sustainable legal practice is one that provides services clients are seeking but does not deplete the energy or soul of the practitioner. Such a practice unfolds in the context of renewal. It’s not just about surviving and avoiding burn out; sustainability is also about continuously renewing the lawyer’s spirit, about feeding her soul and contributing to her physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
What kind of ongoing behaviors are sustainable? Plenty of data suggest what is not: excessive billable hours, approaching problems as amoral technicians, refusing to see the broader implications of what we do, engaging in highly competitive behaviors, even within our firms. Here’s the challenge: How can we find pragmatic solutions that address our own deeper human needs and aspirations while fulfilling our client’s needs?
Sustainability Addresses Three Needs
The first and most obvious solution is to find business practices that will survive in a highly demanding and competitive environment. Daniel Pink suggests that our world is changing from an information age to a conceptual age. It’s no longer sufficient for lawyers to acquire theoretical knowledge and apply their analytical skills. They also need to practice the art of understanding subtleties, the ability to see things contextually and high levels of emotional intelligence. The future belongs to lawyers who are comfortable and practiced in these right brain exercises.
Second, in the midst of our legal work, we must find ways to sustain our physical well being. Who among us is not watching cholesterol levels, avoiding transfat and sipping green tea or, better yet, munching only dark chocolate. Volumes have been written about nutrition and diet, along with the importance of exercise. Significant studies confirm that meditation improves the functioning of the immune system, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure and actually produces “happiness” as measured by brain wave activity (the brain activity during meditation is especially high in the prefrontal cortex which is associated with positive emotions).
Third, and the most neglected, sustainability in law practice must address the question: is all well with my soul? To have a sustainable practice is to look in the mirror and see a person of integrity. Integrity is the nature of Nature. To live out of integrity is to invite dis-ease. Any significant disconnect between values and practice is not sustainable. The Carnegie Report on Educating Lawyers highlights the need for a “more robust professional integrity.”
What Does Conscious Lawyering Look Like?
When Raquel Lazar-Paley launched the online Conscious Lawyer I responded enthusiastically to her invitation to be a presenter in the first series entitled “Law as a Healing Profession.” I did not know much about Webex or online presenting but I knew that my professional journey has focused on the interdependent relationship between consciousness and sustainable lawyering. I no longer teach, facilitate meetings or make presentations without integrating times of meditation. Intentional self-awareness is an integral part of the CLE program I designed for the Conscious Lawyer series.
I invite you now
to pause…
notice your breathing…
and be still for a brief moment…
Conscious living is living intentionally, which requires being aware. Consciousness represents a more complete and integrated intelligence. Patricia Aburdene describes consciousness as a valuable asset, like capital, energy and technology. I would suggest that it is the first among equals. When she views capitalism as an evolving system, she concludes that fundamentalist or extreme capitalism is giving away to a more conscious ideology that espouses both money and morals. She refers to this as conscious capitalism. This new consciousness is beginning to find its way into the culture of corporate law.
What will conscious lawyering look like? I believe that our profession is moving away from a strictly mechanical and linear, left brain driven approach to more contextual models into which formerly devalued skills are becoming integrated.
This past spring, Oprah Winfrey and J. K. Rowling spoke at the commencement exercises of Stanford and Harvard Universities, respectively. They were refreshingly imaginative and intuitive, embodying a growing openness to, and valuing of, right brain activity—creativity, imagination, feelings—the “soft stuff” that has been all but ignored.
Oprah highlighted the importance of listening to one’s “gut.” She encouraged Stanford graduates not to proceed with any action if the body offers sustained objection. The body cannot lie, although we can learn to not pay attention. The Carnegie Report on Educating Lawyers notes that law students are often told to set aside their desire for justice. Setting aside one’s deeply held values is not a sustainable way to live and practice. The rewards are too costly.
J.K. Rowling heralded the importance of the imagination: “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore [it is] the fount of all invention and innovation….We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
What does this have to do with a mindful and sustainable practice of law? Mindful Meditation provides an avenue into greater creativity, imagination and self-awareness. This is the profile of the Conscious Lawyer and the route to a sustainable practice.
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
The practice behaviors of lawyers are often more reactive than proactive; our responses are frequently over-determined by external stimuli such as a client’s demands, opposing counsel’s attitude, or a firm’s expectation for maximizing profits. The alternative is a practice of mind which, after reflection, considers alternatives and makes considered judgments. Actions then become examples of intention rather than reaction. This requires an integration of mind and heart. A Conscious Lawyer is characterized by self awareness. He observes, inquires and takes into account all relative information that extends beyond the facts into the meanings, feelings and likely consequences underlying the situation.
The essence of systems thinking is the ability to see the self-in-the-system. This is the highest goal of conscious lawyering and the best hope for sustainability. A self aware lawyer is tuned into how she is being influenced and is influencing the situation. Consciousness allows for choice. When we are not driven by emotion, we can consider alternatives.
A mindful practice begins with and is sustained by a daily routine. You can sit quietly, do qigong or yoga, or walk the labyrinth. It begins with a single act. For example, your decision to focus more intentionally on your breathing at this moment—and before each client meeting or in whatever way you can imagine—sets your mindful practice in motion.
Go slowly,
Breathe deeply
And Smile.
I wish you well.
____________
Footnotes
Aburdene, Patricia. Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2005.
Executive Summary: Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2007.
Pink, Daniel. Revenge of the Right Brain in Wired Magazine, February, 2005.
Rabaut, Stella. Wizards of Justice: The Power of the Imagination. Washington State Bar Journal, May 2001.
Thich Nhat Hanh. Being Peace, Parallax Press, 1987.
Harvard Commencement Address, J.K. Rowling, June 5, 2008.
