Zen and the Art of Trial Lawyering

"All I'm asking for is total perfection!"

This line might have been delivered by President Business (a.k.a. Will Ferrell) in The Lego Movie, but how many times has this thought crossed our own minds, my high-achiever trial lawyer and founder friends?

And yet, as Dean Soukeras and I discussed this week, a rigid, play-averse mentality and obsession with control is one of the surest ways to shut down the creativity, experimentation, and even fun that fuels true excellence--whether you're a tech founder, an MMA fighter, or a trial lawyer.

Dean, founder of Zen to One and a true Zen master of scaling, sat down with me on the latest episode of The Legal Athlete Podcast to explore how trial lawyers can thrive under pressure while staying aligned with their values (and keeping things more fun and chill).

Dean’s journey—from law school to scaling a $40M tech company, to Zen practitioner and executive coach—is brimming with lessons for lawyers navigating high-stakes environments.

💡 What You’ll Learn in "Zen and the Art of Trial Lawyering"

✅ Why burnout stems from misaligned values—and how to realign your actions for resilience and growth.

✅ How Zen principles fuel creativity, play, and sustainable success in law and life.

✅ The power of reconnecting with your purpose to unlock energy, joy, and better outcomes.

✨ 3 Actionable Tips for Trial Lawyers✨

1️⃣ Align Your Work with Core Values: Identify tasks or cases that energize vs. drain you, and make choices that reflect your purpose.

2️⃣ Create Permission to Experiment: Give yourself the freedom to try new approaches. Even small experiments can lead to breakthroughs.

3️⃣ Build a Support Network: Surround yourself with trusted peers and mentors for perspective, accountability, and encouragement. If you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or just curious about how to infuse more purpose and play into your practice, this episode is your roadmap for reinvention. 🧘‍♀️⚖️

So, if you're ready to master the Zen of trial lawyering, put on your fun hat (mine's my favorite straw cowboy hat) and tune in now to discover how to win more, stress less, and thrive in your practice.

🎥 Watch on YouTube 

🎧 Also available in audio only on Apple Podcasts and Spotify 🎧

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Dean Soukeras, Zen Master of Scaling Success, is the CEO and Founder of Zen to One, a transformative coaching company that helps founders scale not just their businesses but also their mindsets. Dean graduated law school and practiced real estate law in NY before deciding to change directions and reinvent his career. He founded a tech company that grew to $40M in revenue and then went on to found 2 more startups before landing a role at Meta.

Today, Dean has reinvented himself yet again, from a seasoned tech entrepreneur to an executive coach who shares what he's learned, through success and failure, about building and scaling high-growth businesses. Dean’s unique approach that blends the high-stakes world of business growth with the grounding principles of Zen practice, arising out of his decades of experience as an avid Zen practitioner. His work now focuses on helping leaders reconnect with their core values, align their actions with those values, and create the "permission structures" that allow for innovation, play, and sustainable growth.

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Jess Sargus is a speaker and coach, known for dynamic, transformative talks on mental performance mastery, mindset shifts, and neuroplasticity. As the founder of The Legal Athlete, Jess coaches high-performance individuals and organizations, and empowers audiences to burn down their limiting beliefs, harness the power of small but powerful mindset shifts, and train their brains to become the people they’ve always wanted to be. Her talks blend 22 years of experience in law, business, and combat sports with cutting-edge strategies from neuroscience and sports psychology to inspire lasting change.