We recently had a meditation professional share the following article with us about a pioneer in legal education. Charles Halpern, currently UCBerkeley Law School began meditating himself when he was the Dean of CUNY Law School. He has since then gone on to develop a course in meditation for law students and for lawyers. Each semester, the class is oversubscribed and has begun to be replicated in some form at law schools nationwide. This article resonated for us. This past Fall 2016, we taught Mediation Skills and Theory and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and brought in an experience meditation professional as a guest lecturer – see the “2bpresent” link below.
We ourselves have had the privilege to learn from Norman Fisher, a poet and a Zen Buddhist Priest from the San Francisco Zen Center. See “everydayzen” below–which also has terrific, free guided meditations on the website.
Using mindfulness when working as a conflict resolution professional helps the attorney or mediator to maintain focus, compassion and connection with their clients, as well as a centered calm while facing challenging dynamics and situations.
For further reading, follow the links below.
http://www.dailygood.org/story/1499/quiet-justice-charles-halpern/