September 19 2017

The Mindful Lawyer – Ethics and Mindfulness in the Practice of Law

Fish-eye lens picture of rippling clouds in a deep blue sky reflected in still water

What is it?  A unique workshop introducing lawyers to Mindfulness Practices

Date: November 9, 2017

Time: 9:00 am – 3:30 pm

Location: The office of Jewitt McLuckie & Associates LLP, 2nd floor, 1505 Carling Avenue, Ottawa K1Z 7L9

Facilitators: David Jewitt LLB, Partner, Jewitt Mcluckie & Associates LLP and Craig Mackie, MA, MSW, RSW, Owner, Essential Change

What’s in it for me? Accredited by the Law Society for 3.5 Professionalism Hours (that’s all of the mandatory LSUC “Professionalism” CPD requirements for 2017), plus the valuable content outlined below.AccredCPD-BW

Cost: $200.00 plus HST.  Includes all course materials.  Lunch not included

To Register: email craig@essentialchange.net or david@jewittmcluckie.ca

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Professional Dilemmas with Ethics: Lawyers are held to the highest of ethical standards and are required to resolve ethical dilemmas daily while in the midst of intense adversarial battles.  The practice of law requires a fine awareness of our inner personal values and a deep understanding of how the Professional Code of Conduct creates rules of practice and enduring value and respect for the Profession.  In this experiential workshop Participants will be offered:

  1. A deeper understanding of how the Professional Code of Conduct applies to their practice;
  2. What personal motivations are central to their practice;
  3. What values they need in order to strengthen their practice and navigate ethical dilemmas.
  4. Specific Mindfulness practices and techniques to increase the “mindfulness pause” before taking action.
  5. A copy of the 16 Ethical Guidelines by Alison Murdoch and Deyki-Lee Oldershaw (compassionandwisdom.org) which contains practical exercises to assist in the cultivation of mindful ethical behaviour will be included with the material.

 Participants will examine personal and professional ethical scenarios to understand how the 16 Guidelines can be applied with the Rules of Professional Conduct.    Basic ethical values such as Honesty; Respect, Confidentiality; Kindness; Generosity; Right Speech; Humility and Patience will be explored in conjunction with the Professional Code of Conduct Rules 3.1 – Competence, Dishonesty, 3.7 – Withdrawal, 3.2.2 – Honesty and Candour, 3.3 – Confidentiality, 3.2.2 – Honesty, 3.4 – Disclosure of Conflict 5.0 – Relationships with Colleagues, and 6.3 – Discrimination.

This workshop  is designed to assist lawyers in making the connection between their own inner emotional and mental states and the ethical actions that follow in their day to day practice. Participants will be introduced to the experiential practice of Mindfulness/Meditation and the Ethical Principles outlined in the 16 Guidelines as they relate to the LSUC Professional  Code of Conduct.

Mindfulness:  Mindfulness allows us to pause between stimulus and response in order to respond most skillfully. It trains our attention, intention and attitude that can influence every situation we encounter (Shapiro,2006). From the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (UK); “Training in mindfulness is a conscious & directed way of shaping our neural networks according to our intentions.” With this in mind, in order to heighten a lawyers’ ability to respond ethically across all practice settings, training in mindfulness can help increase ethical decision making. Mindfulness practices will be taught to assist the participants in transforming future personal and professional ethical dilemmas into opportunities for ethical action.

16 Guidelines as a Mindful Ethical Framework:  Participants will be presented with a possible framework to understand ethical conduct through a system of applied ethics called the 16 Guidelines (http://16guidelines.org) .

The 16 Guidelines are used to teach applied ethics in multiple settings. They focus on the ethics of Thought, Action, Relationship and Meaning Creation at all levels of corporate, personal and organizational culture.  Each of these areas has a set of virtues or practices which will be explored in the workshop.

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More about the Facilitators:

David Jewitt, LLB, Partner, Jewitt Mcluckie & Associates LLP

After ten years of practice  at a large Ottawa law firm, David established his own law firm in 1991 specializing in labour and employment law and human rights on behalf of employees and unions. David can be found on the Best Lawyers in Canada list for his expertise in the practice area of Labour and Employment Law. David also has a passion for yoga and meditation of all types having studied extensively with senior yoga teachers throughout North America and in India. He has visited Tibet and studied with senior Tibetan Lamas on various Tibetan meditation techniques.

Craig Mackie, MA, MSW, RSW, Owner, Essential Change

Craig is a consultant, mindfulness teacher and owns a clinical private practice in Ottawa. He has taught mindfulness with clinical populations since 2008 and currently teaches at the University of Toronto Applied Mindfulness Meditation Certificate program. He is an international instructor for the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (UK) and certified in symptom and stress management models of mindfulness as well as Transformative Mindfulness and the 16 Guidelines which is an ethical practice. Craig combines his knowledge of philosophy with a very practical approach to help individuals and organizations reach their fullest potential.

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Image credit: Big Autumn Blue by Stuart Williams via Flickr under Creative Commons licence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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