About MILS

What We Do

MILS is the hub for mindfulness in the legal profession, bringing together lawyers, law students, faculty, Judges, and others in the legal community across the nation. We share resources and provide networking opportunities, including practice area affinity groups, local chapters, virtual sits, webinars, and national conferences. We offer centralized resources for those who seek to create or enhance a mindfulness practice or program for themselves, their law firms, legal communities, and law schools. We are based at Southwestern Law School and are supported by a generous grant from the Lenz Foundation.

Our Leadership

Richard Reuben, Chair and Founder

Richard C. Reuben is the James Lewis Parks Professor of Law and Journalism at the University of Missouri School of Law, where he teaches a variety of public law and dispute resolution courses. He has practiced mindfulness for more than 15 years, and has been active in the growing movement to bring mindfulness to the legal profession. Professor Reuben founded the Mindfulness Affinity Group of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Balance in Legal Education in 2014, and, with Rebecca Simon (Southwestern Law School) co-founded the Mindfulness in Law Society in 2016. MILS is an umbrella organization that seeks to facilitate mindfulness awareness, groups, and activities within the legal profession. It currently has a Student Division and a Corporate Counsel Division, and is always looking to expand to other areas when leadership emerges. Professor Reuben is the author of Bringing Mindfulness into the Classroom: A Personal Account, 61 J. Legal Ed. 674 (2011), and is the Principal Investigator, with positive psychologist Ken Sheldon, of the first empirical study to assess the utility of mindfulness to help first year law students manage their stress and improve their academic performance. Professors Reuben and Sheldon are also engaged in similar studies of veterinary students and doctoral students. Professor Reuben can be reached at ReubenR@missouri.edu, or by phone at 573-817-2900.

Rebecca Simon, Executive Director and Co-Founder

Rebecca A. Simon is a faculty member at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Professor Simon leads workshops on stress management and mindfulness for both law school and bar exam success. She is the Executive Director of the Mindfulness In Law Society. Professor Simon serves with Richard Reuben as the Co-Chair of the Mindfulness Affinity Group of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Balance in Legal Education. She is the Faculty Advisor for the MILS student chapter at Southwestern and facilitates their monthly “Mindfulness Monday” sessions. Professor Simon co-created and is now the Co-Director of the Mindfulness, Stress Management, Peak Performance Program at Southwestern Law School. The program is an innovative science-based initiative designed to help incoming law students achieve law school success by increasing mental focus, decreasing stress, overcoming performance obstacles, and promoting greater cognitive performance and overall happiness. Students who participate in the Peak Performance Program learn mindfulness based tools and other tangible techniques and skills that allow them to optimize their law school performance by enhancing seven elements of peak performance: Attention, Beliefs, Emotions, Body, Energy, Purpose and Communication. You can read more about the Peak Performance Program here. Professor Simon can be reached at rsimon@swlaw.edu, or by phone at 213-738-5786.