Nosara, Costa Rica · March 20–26, 2027 · 15 Lawyers

Recess

A retreat for lawyers who forgot what fun feels like.

Reserve Your Spot

$500 refundable deposit · Up to 12 hours of CLE

Somewhere between law school orientation and your fourth straight year billing 2,000 hours, something quietly disappeared. Not your competence. (You're better than ever at your job.) Not your ambition. (You still have plenty of that.) What disappeared was the version of you that did things for no reason other than they sounded fun.

Recess is not a wellness retreat. There are no panels on "managing stress" or "finding balance." Nobody will ask you to journal about your feelings unless you want to. Instead, you'll spend a week in Costa Rica doing things you haven't done since you were a kid: surfing, making things with your hands, playing summer-camp games with a competitiveness that will surprise you, telling stories around a table, exploring a jungle, laughing until your face hurts.

On Day 1, you'll be sorted into one of four teams. Your team will have a name, a chant, and a flag you paint together. Throughout the week, you'll compete in things like pool volleyball, flip cup, trivia, relay races, and games you haven't thought about since fifth grade. Points are tallied. Trash talk is encouraged. On the final night, the winning team hoists the Recess Cup.

Why? Because we spend nearly every hour of every day in our analytical brain. We break down arguments, anticipate problems, and think three moves ahead. That's what makes us great at what we do. But you can't reconnect with yourself in that mode. You reconnect when you're willing to look ridiculous. When opposing counsel is your teammate in a pool relay and neither of you cares about dignity. When the most respected person in the room is diving headfirst down a slip-and-slide.

The thesis is simple: you don't fix burnout by talking about burnout. You fix it by playing like you did before it started.

Location
Nosara, Costa Rica
Dates
March 20–26, 2027
Group Size
15 max
Laptops
Your Call (But Really?)
Competition
The Recess Cup
Surf lesson at Playa Guiones Cannonball into the pool Group dinner at sunset

The Week

Every day is designed, but nothing is mandatory. The only rule is: no work.

Day 1 — Sat, Mar 20
Arrive &
Exhale
Afternoon
Arrive in Nosara. Airport transfers arranged. Check into your room, drop your bags, and do absolutely nothing for a while. Walk the property. Find the pool. Stare at a tree.
Evening
Welcome dinner + The Draft. Long table. Local food. Good wine. Howler monkeys in the trees. After dinner, Alex sorts everyone into one of four teams. You'll pick a team name, write a chant, and paint a flag. It will feel ridiculous. That's the point. The week starts the moment you stop taking yourself seriously. First Recess Cup points are awarded for the best (and worst) chants.
Day 2 — Sun, Mar 21
Get in
the Water
Morning
Surf lesson at Playa Guiones. You don't need to know how. That's the point. The ocean doesn't care about your billing rate. Beginners welcome — expected, actually. Yoga option for anyone who prefers to stay on land.
Afternoon
Unstructured. Explore the town. Get a smoothie. Nap. Read a book that has nothing to do with the law. This is the first day most people realize how long it's been since they had an unscheduled afternoon.
Evening
Beach bonfire + Recess Cup: Round 1. Flip cup, trivia, and a storytelling competition where each team sends someone up to tell the best (true) story. Points for all of it. The bonfire is the backdrop. The trash talk starts here and doesn't stop for the rest of the week.
Day 3 — Mon, Mar 22
Make
Something
Morning
Sunrise yoga or second surf session. Your body is starting to remember it exists for more than sitting at a desk.
Afternoon
Creative workshop: work with your hands. Pottery, woodworking, or a local craft guided by a Nosara artisan. You will make something imperfect and it will be the most satisfying thing you've done in months. Lawyers spend every day working with words. Today you work with material.
Evening
Recess Cup: Team Cook-Off. Each team gets the same Costa Rican ingredients and a local chef as guide. You cook. You plate. Alex and the chef judge. The losing team does dishes. (Not really. But the threat stands.)
Day 4 — Tue, Mar 23
Go
Deeper
Morning
Jungle hike to a waterfall. Guided by a local naturalist. Monkeys, birds, trees you've never seen. The kind of morning that makes you wonder why you live the way you live. You swim when you get there.
Afternoon
"The conversation." A guided small-group session. Not therapy, not coaching, just honest conversation among people who understand the weight of the work. What did you want before law school? What would you do differently? What do you actually want next? These conversations happen because you've spent three days doing things together, not because someone scheduled a "vulnerability exercise."
Evening
Dinner out in town. The group walks to one of Nosara's best restaurants. The conversation from the afternoon will keep going naturally. Let it.
Day 5 — Wed, Mar 24
Game
Day
Morning
Your choice: surf, yoga, or sleep in. By day five you've found your rhythm. Some people are hooked on surfing. Some have discovered that two hours of morning yoga changes their entire day. Some just need the sleep. Rest up. You'll need it.
Afternoon
Recess Cup: Field Day. The main event. Pool relay races. Red Light, Green Light. Slip-and-slide kickball. Tug of war. Capture the flag. Whatever else we feel like making up on the spot. This is the afternoon where a managing partner and a first-year associate are both belly-down on a wet tarp trying to round second base, and neither one cares about dignity. The scoreboard will be updated loudly and often.
Evening
Sunset horseback ride along the beach, followed by dinner. Genuinely cinematic. You'll feel like a different person than the one who landed on Saturday. Recess Cup standings are announced over dessert. Alliances may form. Appeals will be filed.
Day 6 — Thu, Mar 25
Bring It
Home
Morning
Final surf or yoga session. You will be measurably better at whichever one you chose. That progression — from "I can't do this" on Sunday to "I actually can" on Thursday — is the entire retreat in miniature.
Afternoon
"The design session." Not a business plan. Not a productivity hack. A simple, guided exercise: what does a week look like when you're living the way you want to live? You design one. With specifics. Then you share it with a small group who will hold you to it after you leave.
Evening
The Recess Cup Final + Last Dinner. One final event: the game TBD and announced that morning to keep everyone honest. Points tallied. The Recess Cup trophy is awarded. The losing teams will file appeals that are summarily denied. Then: long table, everyone together, a few words from Alex, and the kind of dinner where nobody wants to leave the table. You'll exchange numbers with people you met six days ago and actually mean it.
Day 7 — Fri, Mar 26
Depart
Morning
Breakfast together. Transfers to the airport. You'll leave Nosara lighter than you arrived. Not because someone fixed you. Because you remembered that you were never actually broken. You'd just forgotten how to play.

What You'll Leave With

Where You'll Stay

Home base is Paradise Villas in Nosara. Everyone gets a private room with their own bathroom (couples who come together share one). Meals happen at one long table, the Recess Cup's pool events happen a few steps from your door, and there are enough quiet corners to disappear into with a book when you've had your fill of humans.

Aerial view of Paradise Villas — the pool, thatched rancho, and jungle grounds
Home Base, From Above
The pool at dusk, lit up in front of the open-air rancho
The Pool at Dusk
The open-air pavilion with dining tables and a bamboo bar
Where Every Meal Happens
A private room with garden doors at Paradise Villas
Your Room. Yes, Your Own.
Sunset at the beach in Nosara — surfers and beach walkers at the waterline
Sunsets a Short Walk From Your Room

We Tested It on Ourselves First

We took our entire firm to Nosara. Thirty people, one week, zero regrets.

An incredible week in a beautiful country . . . It was a breath of fresh air watching everyone slow down, relax, and have fun competing intensely against each other.

A
Alicia
Lawyer, Litson PLLC
Ridwan jumping into the pool
Cannonball
Sunset dinner on the beach
Every Meal Together
Winner drinking from the original Recess Cup trophy
The Original Recess Cup
Surfing at the beach
Surfing
Kayaking on the river
Kayaking
Zipline group selfie
Zipline

A magic wand wouldn't have made this trip any better.

SS
Shannen S.
Group photo
Group Photo
Flip cup tournament
Flip Cup
Team flag making
Flag Making

Truly an amazing week!

CG
Caitlin G.

An incredible week in a beautiful country . . . It was a breath of fresh air watching everyone slow down, relax, and have fun competing intensely against each other.

A
Alicia

A magic wand wouldn't have made this trip any better.

SS
Shannen S.

Truly an amazing week!

CG
Caitlin G.

Thinking about it?

Good — it's worth thinking about. Leave your name and email and you'll get the full itinerary (PDF), plus updates as the 15 spots fill.

Alex Little in the hills above Nosara, Costa Rica
Your Host
Alex Little

Alex is the founder of Litson PLLC, a Nashville-based federal litigation firm. Before that, he conducted private diplomacy at The Carter Center, wrote classified cables as a CIA intelligence analyst, and later worked as a federal prosecutor.

He's also a dad, a mediocre (but enthusiastic) surfer, a general aviation enthusiast, and someone who spent years learning the hard way that being great at your job and actually enjoying your life are two different skills — and only one of them gets taught in law school.

He built Recess because the version of rest that most lawyers allow themselves (you know the one: a distracted beach vacation where you check email every forty minutes) doesn't work. He wanted to build the week he wished someone had given him ten years ago.

This Is Not for Everyone

If you're looking for a stuffy panel discussion or a conference with a lanyard, this isn't it.

This is for the lawyer who is very good at their job . . . and quietly exhausted by it. The one who suspects that the best version of their career requires becoming a more complete version of themselves first.

Reserve Your Spot

All-Inclusive · 7 Days
$8,900
per person

✓ Six nights accommodation in Nosara at Paradise Villas

✓ All meals, wine, and drinks throughout the week

✓ Surf lessons and board rental

✓ Daily yoga sessions

✓ All workshops, activities, and excursions

✓ Up to 12 hours of CLE credit

✓ Airport transfers (Liberia or Nosara)

✓ A cohort of 14 people you'll know for the rest of your career

That works out to about $1,270 a day, everything included — for a lot of lawyers, a single billable day, traded for a week you'll still be talking about in ten years.

And with up to 12 hours of CLE included, many attendees put part of the cost against their firm's CLE or professional-development budget.

1A $500 deposit holds your spot today
2The balance is paid in two installments, the last by Dec 20, 2026
3Fully refundable until Dec 20, 2026 — transferable to another attorney after
Hold My Spot — $500 Deposit

15 spots total — reserve before they're filled. Register by November 2026 and we guarantee CLE approval for your state.

Questions first? Email Alex — he answers everything himself.

Questions You Probably Have

Can I actually disappear for a week?
That question is exactly why the dates are published this far in advance. You'd clear March 20–26 for a trial — clear it for this instead. There's Wi-Fi and cell service if something truly needs you, and unstructured time built into every day. For what it's worth: we took an entire litigation firm offline for a week to test this retreat. Every client survived. Most didn't notice.
Is it worth $8,900?
Run the numbers the way you'd bill them: it's about $1,270 a day, and that covers everything — room, meals, wine, surfing, yoga, excursions, transfers, and up to 12 hours of CLE. No planning, no coordinating, no decision fatigue. Then run the other numbers: when was the last time you took a week that actually worked? If the answer is "can't remember," you're not really comparing this to $8,900. You're comparing it to another year of not going.
Who else is going?
Fifteen lawyers, max. Expect a mix — litigators and deal lawyers, associates through partners, solo attendees and couples. If who's coming matters to your decision, email Alex — he'll tell you about the confirmed group (with their permission) before you put a dime down.
Do I get my own room?
Yes. Every attendee gets a private room with their own bathroom at Paradise Villas; couples who come together share one. The summer-camp part of the week is the games — not the sleeping arrangements.
How do I get there?
Fly into Liberia (LIR), about two and a half hours away, or connect through San José to Nosara's local airstrip (NOB). Airport transfers from both are included — we'll coordinate pickup times after you register. Land, hand off your bags, and let someone else do the driving.
Can my firm cover it?
Often, at least in part. Recess includes up to 12 hours of accredited CLE, and we'll provide the documentation your firm needs. Many attendees put some or all of the cost against a CLE, professional-development, or wellness budget. We're lawyers, not your accountants — but it's a conversation worth having before you assume the answer is no.
How does the CLE credit work?
Recess includes up to 12 hours of accredited CLE woven into the week — but not the kind you're used to. Think: a legal analysis of My Cousin Vinny on movie night, an ethics discussion over sunset cocktails, or a negotiation workshop disguised as a cooking competition. Every session is designed to be something you'd actually want to attend — and you'll actually remember what you learned. State approval varies, but if you register by November 2026 we'll guarantee your state is covered.
Can I bring my spouse or partner?
Yes, couples are welcome. Your partner will be on a different team, though. We've found that the week is better when you each have your own experience to compare notes on over dinner. Plus, the competition is more fun when you can trash-talk your spouse across the scoreboard.
I'm an introvert. Will I be forced to share my feelings?
Nothing is mandatory. The week is designed so that connection happens naturally through shared experience, not forced vulnerability. Plenty of built-in alone time.
Can I bring my laptop?
You can. But think about it this way: 10-year-old you didn't bring a laptop to the playground. The week works better when you're not toggling between the pool and your inbox. Your phone is enough for anything truly urgent.
Do I need to know how to surf?
No. Most people who come have never surfed. That's part of the point: doing something new and being a beginner again is one of the most important parts of the week.
What's the cancellation policy?
Full refund up to 90 days before. Inside 90 days, your spot is transferable to another attorney but non-refundable.
How competitive is the Recess Cup, really?
Dangerously. The games are silly (flip cup, relay races, slip-and-slide kickball) but lawyers are constitutionally incapable of not trying to win. That combination is what makes it. Expect trash talk, team chants at breakfast, and at least one formal protest of the scoring.
What's not included?
  • Flights: roundtrip from your departing city to/from destination
  • Travel insurance (compulsory)
  • Visa fees (if necessary)

Still deciding? Email Alex directly.
Real answers from the person who built the week — no pitch, no drip campaign.

Come play.

Nosara, Costa Rica. Fifteen lawyers. One week. Zero billable hours.

Reserve Your Spot

Not ready yet? Stay in the loop.

Drop your name and email and we'll keep you posted as March 2027 fills — and you'll be first to hear if we ever add another cohort. No spam, just the occasional note from Alex.