By Heather J. E. Simmons
Think back to law school, and the day you personally experienced Socratic method for the first time. That moment of total panic when you hear the professor call your name, and realize that the moment you have been dreading has arrived.
You probably experienced the fight/flight/freeze response. As much as you might have wanted to run screaming from the room, it wasn’t an option. You had to answer the question.
Take a moment to pay attention to any sensations you are feeling in your body right now: Butterflies in your stomach? Sweaty palms? Is your jaw clenched?
However many years it has been, just thinking about the experience—remembering that feeling of total panic—can take you right back to that moment in time. Your body can’t tell the difference.
Today law students call it getting cold called, and it’s just as traumatizing now as it was then. It doesn’t matter if you are a first-generation attorney, or you are descended from a long line of lawyers and judges, the terror of cold calling is something all law students have in common.
Now, reimagine what that experience might have been like if you had been trained in mindfulness.
Mindfulness can help law students handle the stress of Socratic method and cold calling. But the standard mindfulness panic practice, which is to stop and take three deep breaths, doesn’t work because the professor is waiting for an answer. In my ABA Student Lawyer article, I describe the following alternative: Step 1. Plant your feet firmly on the floor; Step 2. Sit up straight; Step 3. Take one deep breath; Step 4. Now restate the question. These steps could easily be modified to work in court when the judge asks a challenging question.
But what exactly is mindfulness? Jon Kabat-Zinn, developer of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, is one of the people who trained in the Eastern practices of mindfulness and meditation and shared them with the Western world. In his book Wherever You Go, There You Are, he defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” The simplest form of mindfulness meditation is to sit and focus on your breath, noticing when your thoughts stray, and returning your focus to the breath—over and over. That’s it. That’s the practice. It’s the noticing rather than the focusing that is important. Over time, the more you notice when your thoughts stray, the more your ability to focus in all aspects of your life will improve.
Will mindfulness solve all your problems? Certainly not. But what it can do is create a transition between the dinosaur brain (fight/flight/freeze) and the executive function brain. Executive function is where the analytical thought happens. It’s the part of the brain that attorneys rely on to do their work. Mindfulness gives you the time to pause and calm down enough to form a coherent thought.
Mindfulness has value for attorneys far beyond law school. Have you ever been in a deposition where you wanted to punch the obnoxious opposing counsel? Rather than reacting in anger, take a moment to pause. Take a deep breath, notice what you are feeling, and then decide how you want to respond. The value of mindfulness is the space it creates in your mind.
In any practice of law, mindfulness can be a great way to distance yourself from difficult work. In criminal law and family law especially, the consequences for clients are serious and life-changing, from prison time to losing parental rights. But at the end of the day you need to be able to put all of that aside, to go home and live your life.]\
To find out more about how mindfulness can help you, and meet other attorneys who have incorporated contemplative practices into their work, visit the Mindfulness in Law Society website.
Heather J. E. Simmons is the Associate Director for Instruction and Access Services at the University of Georgia School of Law Library. She earned her J.D. from Wayne State University and her Master of Library Science from the University of Michigan. An emeritus member of the Michigan Bar, she has previously held positions at the University of Illinois College of Law, Wayne State University Law School, and General Motors. She became a certified Koru Mindfulness teacher in 2021 and is working to form a Georgia Chapter of the Mindfulness in Law Society.
“In my ABA Student Lawyer article, Mindfulness for Cold Calling: Rite of Passage or a Form of Torture?, I describe the following alternative: Step 1. Plant your feet firmly on the floor; Step 2. Sit up straight; Step 3. Take one deep breath; Step 4. Now restate the question. These steps could easily be modified to work in court when the judge asks a challenging question.”
To find out more about how mindfulness can help you, and meet other attorneys who have incorporated contemplative practices into their work, visit the Mindfulness in Law Society website.