mindful students and mindful judges , and the construction of the Mindfulness in Law Society Student Division began .
The program picked up 15 chapters the year it was created and has welcomed three more additions since . Some of the schools boasting a MILS chapter include Columbia Law School and Drexel University . Georgia State , being one of those first fifteen chapters , garnered forty student participants in its first semester , sixty in its second ,
and ninety in the current spring semester .
Austin facilitates the development of these programs at other universities , using what he calls the “ Georgia State model .” He says this model ’ s approach is two-pronged . The first installment being a six-week course introducing the practice of mindfulness to 1L students . He says the goal of the introduction program
is to allow students to gain some practical experience actually performing the techniques , so that once they have recognized some of the potential benefits in their own lives , they will want to continue those practices after the introductory program ends .
The second prong is joining the Mindfulness in Law Society Chapter , which facilitates the continued learning and practice of mindfulness for law students through a variety of activities . From weekly yoga
sessions to hosting guest speakers , the program employs a number of techniques to help students relieve their stress .
Austin says he wants GSU Law students to have a less stressful law school experience , but it is more than just stress reduction . “ I think that a lot of the stress that we put on ourselves is unwarranted … and while these grades are important and this experience in many ways defines where we go , in other ways we are still students , we are still in school and we should not be viewing ourselves any differently or negatively because of what we produce in this space . I want that to sort of be a culture change and I want Georgia State to be a model for that culture change ,” says Austin .
Although the program has been extremely successful at GSU , both Austin and Professor Scott envision the possibilities extending far beyond the GSU campus . It has always been a primary objective of both to keep the program open to students , faculty , and staff , but they would like to start getting practicing attorneys around Atlanta involved . They are working to establish Continuing Legal Education credits for Atlanta attorneys to attend instructional meetings at GSU over a course of several weeks to learn mindful practices to be applied in the workplace .
Austin points out providing clients with counsel is one of the most important components of being an attorney . “ There ’ s many opportunities when being a lawyer means being a counselor to someone and if
16 April 2017