Colorado Chapter
Mary Pougiales
Co-Chairs
Mary is a former criminal trial and appellate attorney with over 40 years in the legal profession. Following graduation from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1977, she first worked as a Deputy District Attorney in Marin County, California, then for 14 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in San Francisco and Oakland. Her final 20 years were spent as an appellate attorney on the Ninth Circuit and California Court of Appeal appointments panels.
Facing burnout after six years as a prosecutor, she began her 40-year journey of meditation practice in yoga and Soto Zen traditions, eventually finding her “home” in Insight Meditation at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center near her home in Marin County.
Following her retirement from law in 2023, and a move to Colorado, Mary completed the two-year intensive Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) taught by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.
She now devotes her time to offering mindfulness training as an ongoing professional support for lawyers, to help them cultivate balance, clarity, calm, and wise presence in all aspects of their work and life.
David Graf has practiced law in Colorado since 1995. For most of those years, he has operated his own firm as a specialist in community association law. David is one of the most sought-after community association industry trainers and speakers in the United States. David is a Connecticut native who moved to Colorado in 1995 to find the mythical state of balance between working in the city as an attorney and playing in the mountains as a rock and ice climber, skier, and mountain runner. David has been practicing yoga since 1995 and meditating consistently since the year 2000.
In 2013, David suffered a stroke after tearing his vertebral artery in a freak accident. After re-learning to walk, dress, and feed himself, he commuted to work and to client meetings on a folding bicycle until he was able to drive again, nearly a year after his stroke. David speaks on mental toughness during long-term rehabilitation, living with chronic pain, mindfulness and meditation, conflict reduction, and professional burnout and happiness. David is also a life and mindset coach who works with attorneys to help them live their best lives during difficult circumstances. He is a double-certified professional coach and holds the Energy Leadership Index-Master Practitioner designation.