Kar Munoz Blog

I am a lawyer, and wellness advocate. Wellness for lawyers and in the workplace is very important to me. As a managing partner at Dolan Law, a boutique trial law firm, I am dedicated to serving and representing clients who have suffered traumatic injuries and who have been victims of crime. Yoga has been instrumental in my well-being, a grounding force in my life for the last two decades and I have been a certified yoga teacher since 2014. I teach, write, and create workshops that promote lawyer well-being and serve on legal committees and provide wellness support to law firms and legal organizations. I have taught pro bono yoga for the Illinois Lawyers Assistance Program and was a starting member of the Illinois Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being.

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By: Dolan Law

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Kar Munoz

Latest from Kar Munoz Blog

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I was walking my dog the other day when we stopped at the park. We lingered about and I let the dog do his thing while I talked to some of the other dog owners. I noticed a couple of things. The kids who were actively playing with other kids seemed to belong to parents who were also socializing with other parents. When something such as a cry or yell from a playing child alerted a parent, the parent would rush over. If the child had done something to misbehave, they would be disciplined. If the child had fallen and…
Continue Reading I was walking my dog the other day when we stopped at the park.

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Being Mindful; it is a phrase that is part of our lexicon. Despite its commonness, it at times can be conceptually difficult to understand, or implement. What does it mean? I know what it doesn’t mean; getting riled up when a call comes in from opposing counsel regarding an issue you think shouldn’t be an issue, your outburst to your computer to an unrealistic demand from a client, or walking to court and not having looked up once from your phone because you are too busy firing off responses to emails just to get them out of your inbox. When…
Continue Reading Why mindfulness?

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What is mindfulness and why is it important?And how does it relate to law?Well, when we stop and think about it, it has the ability to permeate every aspect of our lives, because our lives are a series of interactions between ourselves and other people.And the Practice of the law is also an interwoven and often complex series of interactions between people: litigants, lawyers and the court.Every interaction we have has a greater impact than we often times realize.For example, something as simple as a phone call. Imagine the person on the other line is having a bad day. You can tell the person…
Continue Reading Mindfully practicing in our practice

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We previously talked about how the pressures and stresses of the profession can affect our mental health and well-being. What can be done, as a profession, and individually, to combat stress, and make attorney well-being a priority?

For one, stakeholders and employers need to acknowledge and accept that stress is abundant in our practice. This first step is beneficial to start addressing well-being. There should be a general understanding that there is a difference between normal stress and stress that can become unhealthy. Make it okay to talk about, without fear. One of the reasons we sometimes fail to get…
Continue Reading Lawyer well-being part II

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As lawyers, we get to help find solutions and assist our clients navigate our systems of law. Lawyers work hard to serve their clients and shoulder much responsibility in doing so. The practice of law can be stressful, given the nature of what we are tasked to do on a regular basis. But stress in our profession has been on the rise for some time. Why? There is the obvious answer, the pandemic that landed on our doorstep and that we have all struggled to navigate since 2020. But there is more to it. Well-being issues in the practice did…
Continue Reading Lawyer well-being

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The pandemic has changed the way we work. “Normalcy” such as going into an office, commuting by public transportation to work, grabbing a coffee, and collaborating in person has been completely upended and in a state of flux. The transition from office life to remote work to now hybrid work has created uncertainty and anxiety in many professionals I know. Making space for our well-being has never been more important. What can be done to increase well-being? For one, exercise can help raise our endorphins and give us energy to help us feel better. Set times for regular breaks. It…
Continue Reading Working well-being into our workdays

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We are very close to summer. Many of us may have already undergone a spring-cleaning session, but I say why limit it only to a specific season. Incorporating regular seasonal cleanings makes decluttering much more manageable. A “spring cleaning” ritual can help us get rid of items that no longer serve us. But how many of us focus on a mental cleanse along with the physical clean-up? Studies show that decluttering leads to reduced levels of stress and anxiety. It feels good to organize and tidy up our physical spaces. The simple act of straightening up provides immediate visible results…
Continue Reading Making Space for Mental Decluttering