Ohio Northern University’s Pettit College of Law will present the 2015 Kormendy Lecture in the Large Moot Court Room on Friday, Oct. 2, at 11 a.m. The program will feature a presentation on “Self-Management and Mindful Awareness in Law School and Beyond” by Leonard Riskin, Chesterfield Smith professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law and Harris H. Agnew visiting professor at Northwestern School of Law.
This presentation will focus on when, where, why and how mindfulness can be taught and used in law schools and law practice environments – and where it might not fit. About 40 U.S. law schools now offer training in how, why and when to control the focus of your attention through a process called mindfulness (as do law firms, corporations, sports teams and other organizations). Mindfulness, which a person cultivates in silent meditation, can help law students and lawyers deal better with stress, increase satisfaction, and improve their performance in any student or lawyering activity.
Riskin previously served as director of the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and Isidor Loeb professor of law at the University of Missouri. He also works at integration of mindfulness into the education of lawyers and other dispute-resolution professionals. He has published several books and numerous articles on dispute resolution (some dealing with “grids” of mediator orientations – facilitative-evaluative/broad-narrow), many articles on the potential contributions of mindfulness to law and conflict resolution, and essays in popular publications, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine. He has led training workshops around the world. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution in 2013. He studied at New York University School of Law (J.D.) and Yale Law School (LL.M.).
The Kormendy Lectureship was established in 1987 in Ohio Northern’s College of Law through an endowment from Helen E. Kormendy, widow of Dr. Steven W. Kormendy. The Dr. Steven W. Kormendy and Helen E. Kormendy Law Lecture Fund is used each year to bring prominent individuals to campus to address matters of law in a public forum in the College of Law. Dr. Kormendy, who died on Jan. 6, 1985, graduated from the ONU College of Law in 1928 and was posthumously awarded an honorary LL.D. in 1985. The Ohio State Bar Association honored him for 50 years of law practice, and he was active in the Hungarian community in Cleveland.
This event is open to the public.
