What is Joy in the Law®?

In its most aspirational sense, Joy in the Law® (JITL) is a local movement to restore joy to the lives and careers of lawyers. Its goal is to increase the joy of lawyers who are already happy, and to inspire a journey towards career happiness for lawyers who feel unfulfilled. We believe that all lawyers can find work that makes them happy most of the time, if not every minute, and a professional life that squares with their values and priorities.  JITL seeks to retire old ideas that being an attorney necessarily means being engaged in needlessly contentious battles, a career in which profit and winning are the only bottom lines that matter, or other negative stereotypes that give lawyers and the legal profession a bad rap.

How doWe Make The Law Joyful?

Through conferences and other gatherings, a theme emerged around lawyers who enjoyed practicing law. Such lawyers had been lucky enough, or smart enough, to have followed their hearts and stuck to their values when choosing a legal career path, regardless of societal pressures or stereotypical ideas of legal success.  These lawyers also seemed to implicitly understand that unkind and unethical behaviors sucked joy from the lawyering space, and generally followed a path of integrity that led them to feel that lawyering was the fulfilling pursuit of their passions and values. We believe that all lawyers can find work that makes them happy most of the time, if not every minute, and a professional life that squares with their values and priorities, whether that’s making millions or having a modest salary but lots more time with their families and friends.

How did Joy in the Law Begin?

Diana Maier, founder of Maier Law Group, first conceived the idea of a joy in the law movement after she attended the Awakening Joy silent meditation retreat at Spirit Rock in Woodacre, California. The retreat, led by James Baraz, followed James’ book and online course of the same name. The idea behind Awakening Joy is that where we put our attention has a huge impact on how we feel about things, and when we focus on finding joy, it shows up much more often.

During the retreat, Diana could not help but reflect upon how lucky she had been as an attorney (after swearing she would never go to law school!) to always enjoy her work as a lawyer.  She began to wonder why that was a fairly unique experience.  Diana concluded that lawyers are trained to engage in many practices that are joy-killers, as well as often follow a patriarchal conception of lawyering that was not a fit for many attorneys such as herself.  Diana realized that she had found her own path in lawyering that rejected old models of lawyering as contentiousness and hyperbolic, and instead focused on deeply connecting with her clients and the legal community around her. Diana felt a deep desire to carry her insights to other attorneys who struggled with being fulfilled as lawyers.  As she did this, Diana realized that, like herself, lots of other attorneys were thoughtful about the impact they had on the world and wanted to leave the old model of lawyering behind

Joy in the Law Conference and Events

Inspired by the insights from the retreat, Diana gathered a group of volunteer attorneys, and they put together the first Joy in the Law® Conference in Marin County, California in September 2016. Diana and volunteers organized the second Joy in the Law® Conference in September 2018.  Currently there is planning for our third conference for September 19, 2025. In addition, JITL periodically hosts online talks and in-person gatherings. For all of these events the theme is the same: what brings joy to our professional and personal lives, and how to increase it. While the small group gatherings of JITL are all-women,  the conference and other ad hoc Joy in the Law® events are co-ed and intended to promote and inspire all attorneys who are interested.

Maier Law Group also hosts regular in-person and virtual lunches for women in-house counsel in a project Dianacalls Closer Connections, and for women labor & employment attorneys in a group called LEAP. Also centered around the San Francisco Bay Area, these meet-ups are for enhancing women's professional success and generating more joy in the practice of law.