Dentons Appoints Europe Chief Mindfulness Officer

Dentons Appoints Europe Chief Mindfulness Officer

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Dentons has appointed Partner Karina Furga-Dabrowska Europe Chief Mindfulness Officer.

According to Dentons, "the appointment reflects her groundbreaking work in launching Dentons’ NextMind program, which helps the firm’s lawyers and professionals to reduce stress, improve well-being, and develop emotional intelligence through mindfulness techniques."

According to the firm, "relying on principles of neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology, NextMind uses regular mindfulness meditation to develop core elements of emotional intelligence, such as self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, social skills and empathy. The program starts with introductory workshops to allow novices to experience mindfulness first hand. It then progresses to a full eight-week training program, designed by Furga-Dabrowska in collaboration with the Kalapa Leadership Academy, where participants begin incorporating mindfulness practice into their daily work.  They also learn about the neuroscientific aspects of long-term stress, psychological pitfalls of perfectionism, consequences of cognitive bias, and the dangers of multi-tasking."

In her new role, Furga-Dabrowska will work with Dentons’ Talent team and a network of trained in-house mindfulness ambassadors to roll out NextMind more widely across the firm and lead other mindfulness initiatives. 

“Mindfulness is simply about exercising your mind to improve cognitive ability and mental clarity," said Furga-Dabrowska. "Neuroscientific research shows that regular mindfulness practice improves resilience, communication, productivity and wellbeing, which are not only beneficial for our people, but also for our bottom line. My goal as Europe Chief Mindfulness Officer is to make mindfulness an integral part of Dentons’ vision to be always the law firm of the future and to contribute to our global NextTalent program by developing essential skills of the lawyer of the future. I want to nurture a culture in which high performance is founded on compassionate leadership, authenticity, honesty and respect. I will also strive to promote a growth mindset and greater team cohesion to drive productivity and innovation."

Furga-Dabrowska has been a lawyer in Dentons‘ Tax and Life Sciences groups since 2006, and a partner since 2008.

“Recognizing the health and productivity benefits that mindfulness can bring to an organization,  innovative global tech giants, such as Google, IBM and SAP, have appointed Chief Mindfulness Officers, but Dentons is the first global law firm to create this role," said Richard Singer, Europe Chief Managing Officer at Dentons. "This is an example of how we are taking best practices from other sectors to bring innovative solutions to the practice of law."

More information about Dentons' Mindfulness program can be found in the May 2019 issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine, which featured an interview with Furga-Dabrowska on the subject.