Scott Rogers believes law students expect more from their profession these days.

“I think law students, like many graduating professionals, come out much more attentive today as it regards balance and their well-being than has historically been a salient issue,” he told the Daily Business Review.

As the director of the University of Miami School of Law's Mindfulness in Law program, Rogers has witnessed firsthand how the demand for mental health initiatives has grown just as ideas that were once foreign to attorneys — such as emotional intelligence, mindfulness and self-care — have become increasingly commonplace among both the legal field and the law students aspiring to enter it. Whether it's a sign of anxious times or the result of a collective effort by a select few, mental wellness has enjoyed a new place of prominence in the discourse surrounding legal work, and Florida's law schools are no exception.

As a traveling speaker and instructor on the subject of mindfulness, Rogers has fostered much of this swell of interest himself. The former commercial litigator began teaching at UM's School of Law in 2008 before formally joining its faculty in 2011. Since becoming affiliated with UM, he's founded several enterprises dedicated to sharing the gospel of mental self-care. Beyond the breadth of the courses he offers, which include “Mindful Ethics” alongside fellow professor and legal ethics expert Jan Jacobowitz and “Mindfulness in Law,” he touts the program he heads as the first of its kind in the country, a feat made possible by the enthusiastic response to his initial lectures at the school.

“The mindfulness classes have resonated with students in part [because] it offers them greater insight and awareness of themselves in ways that are very helpful to their well-being and their professional pursuits,” he said. “They're more grounded. … They have a larger perspective.”

Rogers has been sharing his enthusiasm for mindfulness in some form or another since the 1990s and defines the practice as “seeing clearly what's taking place moment by moment in one's experience” and not getting tied up in “cognitive elaborations.”

“Mindfulness is the capacity to stay grounded and present by seeing clearly what's actually at play,” he said.

Rosario Lozada Schrier, who teaches legal skills and values as an associate professor at Florida International University College of Law, called it “an approach to slowing down … reflecting and being intentional about what you do.”

“Sometimes law students get so bogged down with all the work and armoring up, not being vulnerable, not showing weakness. … And [law students'] experience of isolation is happening over and over in law schools,” she said. Schrier, who also serves as the faculty adviser to the student-ran Mindfulness Association, said her goal is for students “to feel less defeated and more motivated” both in their academics and prospective legal careers.

“It's not just something you practice in a meditation hall. What would be the point of that?” Schrier said. “Sometimes it's just taking a moment to breathe. … And for lawyers, that can make all the difference. You can de-escalate a situation instead of escalate a situation; you become less reactive; you may make more ethical decisions. You may even see more possible avenues for your client.”

Schrier has received approval from FIU to take a sabbatical during the 2020 summer semester to become certified as a trained mindfulness facilitator. Miami's law schools are not the only ones adopting additional measures to relieve students' stress. Both Florida State University College of Law and University of Florida Levin College of Law have augmented their respective mental health-focused offerings. UF Law Dean Laura Rosenbury said the school has stepped up what she calls “affirmative programming” for students.

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“In the past, law schools had a sort of hands-off approach … What I call a culture of extreme respect for student autonomy,” she said. “There wasn't advising about which courses to take or markets, size of firms … There wasn't programming about 'OK, you're gonna go be a big firm summer associate. … This is what you need to know to succeed.'”

Rosenbury noted the College of Law now offers a short course on law firm economics focusing on mid-to-large firms aimed at helping students “understand how firms are profitable and how they fit in.”

“I think that will be helpful for students, particularly [those] going into big law,” she said. “We have a large percentage of first-generation college students … And they don't otherwise have access to these economic realities. More programming won't completely eliminate anxiety, but I think it will help reduce anxiety.”

Rosenbury said courses highlighting the practical realities of the profession “is something that has to be integral to the culture of law schools today.”

“It's just as important as the substance taught in the first-year courses. … It's learning how to manage the stress you'll encounter as a lawyer and how you'll be prepared to take on the challenges ahead of you,” she said. “We're in the process of reimagining student support at the Levin College of Law and thinking much more broadly than mental health, but realizing that mental health fits within the larger issue of community, inclusion, wellness, support for student groups, social opportunities … It's exciting to go beyond a narrow focus.”

FSU Law Dean Erin O'Hara O'Connor said many of the school's own efforts — which she notes are primarily extracurricular for now — have come about due to collaborations with law firms and the Florida Bar. This has included wellness workshops with the Florida Bar's Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism as well as nonclassroom meets with law firms, both engineered with the hope that the parties get to know each other a little better.

“We've begun to have law firms come to us to say, 'Hey, we are hiring new associates every year and by the end of the year they're leaving us to go someplace else … We would really love it if someone at the law school could come to us and tell us what we could do better,” she shared. O'Hara O'Connor said there's been a synergy between institutions, aided largely by the Florida Bar's renewed focus on mental health, that's forced educators and law firms to reassess how they're preparing soon-to-be lawyers or freshly graduated attorneys for the field.

“We're beginning to see some self-exploration about how much of this culture can lead to unhappy lawyers in the firm or lawyers leaving the firm,” she said. “I will talk to lawyers at firms who will complain that young lawyers don't want to work … and I say to them that's funny, because our students are here at 8 am until 11 pm. My question is, what happens between here and law school where they take on the world and in private practice?”

She added, “The question is how do you fashion a law firm experience so [young attorneys] are taking ownership of it and they're finding a piece of it that motivates them to continue to do great work, to work hard and to want to stay, whether that's a pro bono project or giving them space to choose… there's different ways to get at work.”

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Along with the often mentioned importance of removing the stigma surrounding discussing mental health, Rosenbury said the cooperation between the Florida Bar, law schools and firms has already produced tangible changes. She made mention of November 2018 alterations to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners application, which adjusted questions regarding mental health to be more specific in outlining what applicants have to disclose in addition to inserting language noting the bar encourages counseling for mental health and substance abuse problems.

“I think we're continuing to work to remove stigma about seeking help,” Rosenbury said. “I hope we will continue as a law school and in the larger profession to emphasize that everyone needs help at some point. And there should be no shame.”

Even with all of the importance placed on helping individual law school students through additional wellness programs, Rogers stressed that ultimately, everyone benefits from happier, healthier lawyers.

“Lawyers and members of the legal profession play such a hugely important role in the stability and evolution of society, and so when people are in a profession for which they are managing conflicts and sometimes high-intensity, emotional, volatile controversies … it would not be surprising that they could absorb a lot of that impact, and that takes its toll,” he said. “And so whatever law schools and law firms and bar associations can do to help buoy the resilience and motivation and inspiration that lawyers go into the practice with … I think is to be applauded and you can't have too much of it.”