AJ Kutchins has also had a law practice specializing in appeals and other post-trial work in serious criminal cases and in complex civil matters since the mid-1980’s. He has also done extensive work in legal education, authoring a number of award-winning film and video scripts used for training judges, lawyers and legal workers regarding ethics and bias and discrimination issues, on behalf of organizations including the California State Bar, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the California Judicial Council and California Continuing Education of the Bar.
During that same period, AJ has also devoted himself to a mindfulness and meditation practice, principally rooted in Zen Buddhism. He has completed five lengthy periods of intensive monastic practice here in the United States, and one in Japan. In the Fall of 2012 he served as the Head Monk (the traditional gate for serving as a Zen teacher) during the monastic practice period at San Francisco Zen Center’s Green Dragon Temple in Marin County, California. He has also provided “non-religious” mindfulness training to groups at schools and elsewhere.
AJ’s deepest concerns now are with integrating mindfulness practice and the wisdom that arises from it with everyday life as a practicing lawyer and a householder – and with his family. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, Mari Mayeda, and their two children, Jake and Miya, and a mini-labradoodle named Satchel, and is a teacher with Warrior One.