Meditation. Authors Jeena Cho and Karen
Gifford, (now recovering) attorneys, struggled at different points in their careers with
anxiety while juggling demanding practices
and life. (Cho still practices and is a partner
at JC Law Group PC, a San Francisco bankruptcy law firm.)
Cho says lawyers often assume medita-
tion isn’t for them because it will make them
lose their edge or invite weakness—an un-
derstandable but misplaced fear: “You can
use meditation to help you increase your fo-
When I told my circle of crusty law-
yer friends (you know, the ones raised by
wolves) that I was reading and reviewing
a book about meditation for lawyers, they
initially corrected me. “You mean media-
tion, right?” “No,” I repeated slowly, “Me-
di-TA-tion.” At which point the eye-rolling
and fake “ohm-ing” began.
Because this reaction is not uncommon,
it is addressed very directly in the book titled
The Anxious Lawyer: An 8-Week Guide to a
Joyful and Satisfying Law Practice Through
BY JULIET PETERS
JULIET PETERS is a 1998 cum laude
graduate of the Sandra Day O’Connor
College of Law. During her career she has
been a litigator, worked in-house for a
Phoenix-based franchisor, and led the child
welfare division of the Arizona AG’s office.
She is the founding principal of Framework
Legal, PLLC, which provides alternative fee-based corporate legal services to in-house
counsel and businesses of all sizes.
BOOK REVIEW
The Anxious Lawyer
Mindfulness and Meditation
By Jeena Cho & Karen Gifford
Cloth, 251 pages
Ankerwycke Books
ISBN-13: 978-1627226240
2016, $29
cus and concentration. The Navy Seals use
it for mental agility. I don’t think anyone
would accuse them of going soft, holding
hands and singing kumbaya,” she told me
when we spoke about the book.
Mindfulness,
Meaning,
Meditation
