Book Review and Essay: Review: Shailini Jandial George, The Law Student’s Guide to Doing Well and Being Well and Essay: From Stressful to Mindful to Joyful: Proposing a New Paradigm to Release the Deeper Chains Binding Law Students and Lawyers to Unhappy, Unhealthy Lives

Abstract

I am pleased to review a valuable contribution at an opportune time for law students and legal education, The Law Student’s Guide to Doing Well and Being Well, by Shailini Jandial George, hereinafter The Guide. After presenting my review, in Part II I will urge that we supplement this excellent work and others with a new paradigm for addressing the persistent problems of distress and dissatisfaction in the law, including (a) ending the unhappy marriage of stress and the law, (b) ending the unhappy marriage of superficial, unfulfilling values and the law, and (c) amending aspects of law school pedagogy that undermine the well-being and personality integrity of students. I explain how the current paradigm obstructs health and wellness benefits such as those targeted by The Guide, and why those benefits will exponentially increase if healthful practices are coupled with a new paradigm that generates flow and optimism rather than tension and stress in the study and practice of law.