The Mindfulness Blog

The ABA's well-being pledge is about taking care of lawyers. What a concept!

Can our law firms afford not to sign the well-being pledge? The concept of sustainability (of the men and women who comprise our profession), would suggest that the answer is, "no". But our managing partners will need to first figure out a way to fund the implementation of the pledge, because it's about doing, not just filing out a questionnaire.

Can signing and implementing the pledge be revenue neutral? Or something even close to neutral? Can our law firms financially afford to sign the pledge, and still compensate professionals at the level they expect to be compensated? I believe the answer to that question is, "yes".

How to do that? And what does well-being have to do with mindfulness and meditation? To the first question, I would respectfully suggest that law firms look at the cost of their professional negligence coverage and the lost revenue associated with turn-over (See, prior blog posting re: the business case for mindfulness and meditation).

To the second question, I would refer readers to prior Twitter tweets and LinkedIn postings. As attested to in the cited tweets and postings, both mindfulness and meditation are important pieces of the well-being pie. Mental/emotional fitness is a natural complement to physical fitness.

But let's focus on the well-being pie--and the ABA pledge. All law firms should sign it--and act on it. Please. The future (and the present) of our profession depends upon it. And, as educated men and women who are engaged to represent others, it's time we started representing ourselves.

Let's start thinking about it. Better yet, meditate on it. Maybe even become mindful of the ABA's well-being pledge!