University of Southern California – Gould School of Law

The Peak Performance program originally housed at Southwestern Law School was moved to USC.

The USC Mindfulness, Stress Management, and Peak Performance Program provides students with options: tools, techniques and emerging practices for coping with the stressors and emotional difficulties that inevitably arise in law school. The program assists students in developing a mastery of the law during their law school experience, by helping to eliminate stress barriers, and also to develop a mastery of themselves (self-management) by introducing techniques that can last a lifetime. As a result, students will hopefully experience greater joy and happiness, and less anxiety and stress, and are likely to gain peak performance potential for their classes and eventually on the bar exam. Further, students can carry these stress management techniques into their legal careers and beyond. USC’s Peak Performance is an innovative science-based initiative and is currently the most comprehensive program of its kind. It is designed to help incoming students achieve law school success by increasing mental focus, decreasing stress, overcoming performance obstacles, and promoting greater cognitive performance and overall happiness. Students who participate in the Peak Performance Program learn tangible tools, techniques, and skills that will allow them to optimize their law school performance by enhancing seven elements of peak performance: Attention, Beliefs, Emotions, Body, Energy, Purpose and Communication.”