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A practicing lawyer's eight-week, self-guided program for building a meditation and mindfulness practice that reduces anxiety and creates a more joyful, satisfying, and effective legal career.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Written by two former practicing attorneys who came to meditation through their own struggles with anxiety and stress, The Anxious Lawyer speaks directly to a profession plagued by depression, substance abuse, and burnout. Rather than presenting meditation as an alien, spiritual practice, the authors frame it in terms lawyers understand—as mental training grounded in evidence, requiring the same discipline and focus lawyers already possess. Through an accessible eight-week workbook program moving from basic breath awareness through mindfulness, clarity, compassion, self-compassion, mantra, heartfulness, and gratitude, the book teaches readers to change their relationship to their own thoughts and emotions. Filled with personal stories, scientific research, and practical exercises tailored to the realities of legal practice—difficult opposing counsel, demanding clients, uncontrollable outcomes—it offers a path to greater resilience, clearer thinking, more authentic advocacy, and a deeper sense of purpose.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A practicing lawyer struggling with anxiety, stress, or burnout who wants a more joyful, satisfying, and sustainable career and life.
- The problem
- The structural stresses of legal practice—adversarial conflict, billable hours, demanding clients, uncontrollable outcomes—produce chronic anxiety, depression, and burnout. The lawyer feels isolated, inadequate, ashamed, and afraid that struggling is a personal character flaw.
- The plan
- Prepare by learning breathing basics, gathering simple tools, and setting an intention.
- Begin a daily sitting practice with the body scan.
- Progress week by week through mindfulness, clarity, compassion, self-compassion, mantra, heartfulness, and gratitude.
- Integrate insights off the cushion into daily legal and personal life.
- Choose one practice and sustain it, deepening over time with teachers, groups, or retreats.
- The payoff
- Greater resilience, calm, and confidence in stressful situations. · A changed, healthier relationship to thoughts, emotions, and difficult people. · More effective, authentic, and creative advocacy.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- Stumbling on Happiness · Daniel Gilbert
Explains the science behind why people are poor predictors of their own future happiness, a key concept the book applies to lawyer career choices.
- The Paradox of Choice: Why Less Is More · Barry Schwartz
Discusses how an overabundance of options can lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction, which the book applies to the daunting array of career paths facing law students.
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness · Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
The book uses its concept of 'choice architecture' to suggest how law firms could structure work-life balance options to be more appealing and effective.
- The Tipping Point · Malcolm Gladwell
Cited for the 'Rule of 150,' which argues that organizations (like law firms) lose cohesiveness and become less satisfying workplaces once they grow beyond 150 members.
- Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives · Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler
Referenced to support the argument that peer groups and social networks have a powerful influence on individual happiness, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right law school and firm culture.
- The Innovator's Dilemma · Clayton Christensen
This book provides the theoretical underpinning for Susskind's argument that 'disruptive technologies' will allow new entrants to upend the market, even when incumbent law firms are well-managed and successful.
- Blue Ocean Strategy · W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Susskind uses this concept to urge law firms to innovate by creating new, uncontested market spaces (e.g., new types of legal risk management services) rather than competing fiercely in existing ones.
- The Future of the Professions · Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind
This is the author's own broader work that places the transformation of law within the context of identical pressures affecting all other professions, from medicine to accounting.
- Online Courts and the Future of Justice · Richard Susskind
This book is a deep dive into what Susskind considers a key disruptive innovation—online courts—which he argues is the most promising solution to the global access to justice problem.
- Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm · Marc Galanter and Thomas Palay
This foundational text, cited in multiple chapters, introduces the 'tournament' model that explains the endogenous growth pressure in law firms, a key dynamic shaping their structure, compensation, and management challenges.