Mindfulness & Professional Responsibility

Book excerpt: In Mindfulness & Professional Responsibility-A Guidebook for Integrating Mindfulness into the Law School Curriculum, Scott Rogers and Jan Jacobowitz share with readers their methodology for weaving together mindfulness and professional responsibility in the classroom. Readers are offered a glimpse into their popular University of Miami School of Law course, Mindful Ethics: Professional Responsibility for Lawyers in the Digital Age, and its creative curriculum that draws upon the application of traditional professional responsibility issues in the context of social media. Intended to introduce teachers to mindfulness practices and offer a method of integrating it into their classrooms, the book's largest section contains numerous mindfulness demonstrations, exercises, and insights. These exercises, derived from the Jurisight(r) program created by Scott Rogers to teach mindfulness to law students and lawyers, are easy to follow and specifically adapted to the professional responsibility context. To illuminate the context in which these teachings are shared, readers are offered an overview of the practice of mindfulness, a look at the neuroscience research exploring its benefits, and an historical look at mindfulness in legal education. The book is a terrific read for anyone interested in innovative education. Due to the breath of the book's mindfulness content, readers will find its to serve not only as a vehicle for enhancing the educational process, but also as a critical component in decision making and as an important life skil