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Does Mindfulness Enhance the Study
and Practice of Law?
By RHONDA V. MAGEE*
Introduction
IN HER BLOG, Seeking Serenity, When Lawyers Go cen, author Amanda Enayati
reflects on an interview with U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer,
in which the Justice briefly discussed a practice that supports him in main-
taining his physical wellbeing and provides a background resource for his
demanding work at the highest level of the legal profession.'
The Justice hesitates to call his practice meditation.2
But he does not hesitate to describe how it benefits him in the effort to
remain healthy, reduce stress, and be more effective in his professional role:
To say that I am a meditator is overstating it . . . I don't know that what
I do is meditation, or even whether it has a name. For 10 or 15 minutes
twice a day I sit peacefully. I relax and think about nothing or as little as
possible. And that is what I've done for a couple of years ... And really I
started because it's good for my health. My wife said this would be good
for your blood pressure and she was right. It really works. I read once that
the practice of law is like attempting to drink water from a fire hose. And
if you are under stress, meditation-or whatever you choose to call
it-helps. Very often I find myself in circumstances that may be consid-
ered stressful, say in oral arguments where I have to concentrate very
hard for extended periods. If I come back at lunchtime, I sit for 15
* Rhonda V. Magee, M.A.,J.D., University of Virginia, is a professor and teacher of mind-
fulness-based stress reduction interventions for lawyers and law students at the University of San
Francisco School of Law. She is also the founding director of the Center for Contemplative Law
and Ethics. She would like to thank Tim Iglesias, Professor Emeritus, University of San Francisco
School of Law, for his years of collaboration in bringing contemplative pedagogy, practice, and
community to the school; to the now-defunct Center for Contemplative Mind in Society for its years
of support for the Law Program and Working Group on Contemplative Law; and Dean Susan
Freiwald for her support of the Center. Thanks also to Kirkman Ridd J.D., University of San
Francisco School of Law, 2023) for suggesting, after taking my Torts course, that I author an essay
on these themes.
1. Amanda Enayati, Seeking Sereniy: When lauyeis go zen, CNN BLOGS: THE CHART
(May 11, 2011, 11:15 AM), https://caljudges.org/mwp/docs/20110511_SeekingSerenity.pdf
[https://perma.cc/E4SV-SQ4B].
2. See id.
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