The legal profession needs to start nurturing mentors — preparing experienced lawyers to serve as mentors for attorneys new to the law or to a particular job or specialty. An article featured in today’s ABA Journal focuses on mentoring, and even asks whether it should be made mandatory to bridge the gap between law school and real practice — “Apprentice Attorneys: In Vermont, Months of Mentoring Supplement New Lawyers’ Training,” by Margaret Graham Tebo (July 25, 2003).
The article shows why inexperienced attorneys need mentoring, but making it mandatory probably won’t solve the problem. It would most likely become a rote process, with both mentor and mentee just going through the motions, and signing off on a form. At its worst, it would be a few months of indentured servitude, free labor for greedy firms.
Informal mentoring within most firms also seems unsuccessful these days — there’s too much worrying about losing billable time of both the senior and junior lawyer (and many new attorneys are very shy about showing their limitations or worries to supervising attorneys). We need a culture that values and encourages mentoring and a massive corps of attorneys who are dedicated to the process. Perhaps the great numbers of retiring baby boomers will help bring about a boom in mentoring, but we can’t wait that long.
There’s an article that has some useful things to say about what mentoring should be. It’s by attorney Gary Seiser, and called “Mentoring: Starting the New Year Right“. (ABA Child Law Practice, Vol. 20 No. 11, pp. 171-175, January 2002). Seiser points out that mentoring needs to be a partnership and emphasizes all that the mentor can gain from the process:
Great mentors don’t mentor because they have nothing more to learn. They mentor because they don’t ever want to stop learning. The best mentors treasure the learning process and are enriched by it. They treasure sharing, and realize that in the sharing they also learn. Are all mentors that noble? No. But many are. There are other benefits for mentors too, particularly within an organization such as a court system or a social services agency. It forces mentors to stay current, so they can pass on that information. It offers mentors a challenge, making them think how to help the mentee most effectively. Further, just as mentors support mentees, mentees can also support their mentors—being loyal, providing information, going the extra mile. Mentors gain much from mentoring.
The article has pointers on do’s and don’ts for mentors, as well as suggestions for getting started in mentoring (informally or with a formal program). The article also has an extensive bibliography. If readers of this site know of successful mentoring projects or materials, please let us know, with a Comment or a note in our “Suggestions” Box.
Update (7/26/03): Glenn K. Garnes at ESQTechlaw Weekly has posted his thoughts on the need for mentors, pointing back to ethicalEsq? Glenn says “Second only to pro bono work, mentoring younger lawyers is probably the single most important thing an attorney can do for the community, and the profession.” (emphasis added)
And, Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle.com has also written to encourage mentoring. But, wouldn’t you know, after I finally write what I thought was a very positive, upbeat posting, Carolyn focuses on my “cynical spin” concerning mandatory mentoring. I’d like to think of it as realistic. As I’ve told Carolyn, I was once as optimistic as she about the legal profession (while I was working for the federal government). Things did change when I got down from that tower and into the trenches.
The legal profession needs to start nurturing mentors — preparing experienced lawyers to serve as mentors for attorneys new to the law or to a particular job or specialty. An article featured in today’s ABA Journal focuses on mentoring, and even asks whether it should be made mandatory to bridge the gap between law school and real practice — “Apprentice Attorneys: In Vermont, Months of Mentoring Supplement New Lawyers’ Training,” by Margaret Graham Tebo (July 25, 2003).
The article shows why inexperienced attorneys need mentoring, but making it mandatory probably won’t solve the problem. It would most likely become a rote process, with both mentor and mentee just going through the motions, and signing off on a form. At its worst, it would be a few months of indentured servitude, free labor for greedy firms.
Informal mentoring within most firms also seems unsuccessful these days — there’s too much worrying about losing billable time of both the senior and junior lawyer (and many new attorneys are very shy about showing their limitations or worries to supervising attorneys). We need a culture that values and encourages mentoring and a massive corps of attorneys who are dedicated to the process. Perhaps the great numbers of retiring baby boomers will help bring about a boom in mentoring, but we can’t wait that long.
There’s an article that has some useful things to say about what mentoring should be. It’s by attorney Gary Seiser, and called “Mentoring: Starting the New Year Right“. (ABA Child Law Practice, Vol. 20 No. 11, pp. 171-175, January 2002). Seiser points out that mentoring needs to be a partnership and emphasizes all that the mentor can gain from the process:
Great mentors don’t mentor because they have nothing more to learn. They mentor because they don’t ever want to stop learning. The best mentors treasure the learning process and are enriched by it. They treasure sharing, and realize that in the sharing they also learn. Are all mentors that noble? No. But many are. There are other benefits for mentors too, particularly within an organization such as a court system or a social services agency. It forces mentors to stay current, so they can pass on that information. It offers mentors a challenge, making them think how to help the mentee most effectively. Further, just as mentors support mentees, mentees can also support their mentors—being loyal, providing information, going the extra mile. Mentors gain much from mentoring.
The article has pointers on do’s and don’ts for mentors, as well as suggestions for getting started in mentoring (informally or with a formal program). The article also has an extensive bibliography. If readers of this site know of successful mentoring projects or materials, please let us know, with a Comment or a note in our “Suggestions” Box.
Update (7/26/03): Glenn K. Garnes at ESQTechlaw Weekly has posted his thoughts on the need for mentors, pointing back to ethicalEsq? Glenn says “Second only to pro bono work, mentoring younger lawyers is probably the single most important thing an attorney can do for the community, and the profession.” (emphasis added)
And, Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle.com has also written to encourage mentoring. But, wouldn’t you know, after I finally write what I thought was a very positive, upbeat posting, Carolyn focuses on my “cynical spin” concerning mandatory mentoring. I’d like to think of it as realistic. As I’ve told Carolyn, I was once as optimistic as she about the legal profession (while I was working for the federal government). Things did change when I got down from that tower and into the trenches.
[from Jack Cliente:] I’m typing this quickly, while Mr. Editor is listening to The Sinister Pig, Tony Hillerman’s latest audiobook. Let’s be frank, the worries mentioned in today’s article from the ABA eJournal – about “Problems Ahead” for blogging lawyers — are just plain silly (July 25, 2003, written by Stephanie Francis Ward).
Like Howard, and Denise, and Steven [in SWVirginia]”we” over here at ethicalEsq? have a lot more faith in clients than does the average uptight lawyer (is that redundant?).
Attempts to stifle blogging attorneys are far more likely to come from paranoid partners, thin-skinned judges, and butt-covering bureaucrats than from actual breathing and thinking clients. If a lawyer doesn’t have the good judgment it takes to have both a personality and an opinion online, while keeping clients happy, he or she should stay away from blogging, and maybe from lawyering. Of course, being in retired status, our Editor feels no chilling effects in any case (at least not when he’s under his blankie).
P.S. from the Editor: It’s strange. Lawyers often seem to think they have to appear very bland or very offensive to be successful. My law school went out of its way to attract interesting students — from a former POW and a topless go-go dancer, to pop idols and pimply boy geniuses. Yet, by midway through the first semester, no one talked about anything other than law and law school gossip (and, sometimes, spectator sports). Even while in practice, my survival response to “Do you want to have lunch?” was always “Not if you’re talking law.” Blogging lets us all have a personality and a professional persona, while focusing on topics of interest and expertise. We can’t let the bean counters and worrywarts shut us down.
[from Jack Cliente:] I’m typing this quickly, while Mr. Editor is listening to The Sinister Pig, Tony Hillerman’s latest audiobook. Let’s be frank, the worries mentioned in today’s article from the ABA eJournal – about “Problems Ahead” for blogging lawyers — are just plain silly (July 25, 2003, written by Stephanie Francis Ward).
Like Howard, and Denise, and Steven [in SWVirginia]”we” over here at ethicalEsq? have a lot more faith in clients than does the average uptight lawyer (is that redundant?).
Attempts to stifle blogging attorneys are far more likely to come from paranoid partners, thin-skinned judges, and butt-covering bureaucrats than from actual breathing and thinking clients. If a lawyer doesn’t have the good judgment it takes to have both a personality and an opinion online, while keeping clients happy, he or she should stay away from blogging, and maybe from lawyering. Of course, being in retired status, our Editor feels no chilling effects in any case (at least not when he’s under his blankie).
P.S. from the Editor: It’s strange. Lawyers often seem to think they have to appear very bland or very offensive to be successful. My law school went out of its way to attract interesting students — from a former POW and a topless go-go dancer, to pop idols and pimply boy geniuses. Yet, by midway through the first semester, no one talked about anything other than law and law school gossip (and, sometimes, spectator sports). Even while in practice, my survival response to “Do you want to have lunch?” was always “Not if you’re talking law.” Blogging lets us all have a personality and a professional persona, while focusing on topics of interest and expertise. We can’t let the bean counters and worrywarts shut us down.
I’ve been an opinionated blogger for 8 weeks now and a few things are already clear about me and blogging:
1. Blogging feels addictive, and I can’t “just say no.”
2. Blawggers are a real community, and so far I’ve only seen the positive side of being a member (special thanks to Carolyn, Walter, Ernie, Robert, Genie, Tom, Stuart, Ken, et al., for your warm welcome, continuing interest, and/or thoughtful tolerance)
3. Blogging feels like a job, but it’s the first job I’ve ever had that I always enjoy getting (and staying) up to do — even when I’m complaining about all the work and worried about voicing opinions on important subjects in such a public way
4. The best unexpected benefit of writing Op/Ed pieces for my own weblog: I get to write my own headlines. After years bemoaning editors who caption my pieces with a little too much attitude, with exaggeration, or with no apparent understanding of the content or the point, I’m loving the role of BlOpEditor — responsible for my own captions, and glad of it. [One particularly aggravating example from my past: Five years ago, my local newspaper, on the front page of the Sunday opinion section, ran the following headline with my piece asking for more lawyer competence and diligence, and supporting mandatory CLE (which the local bar still opposed): Sad to Say, Bad Lawyers Aren’t the Exception. Although I did say there are too many of them, I did not say that bad lawyers were the rule, and I did make appropriate disclaimers about all the honest, able, hardworking ones I’d seen. Thanks to that headline, a number of colleagues in town still cross the street when they see me coming. I don’t mind being provocative, but I really hate being ostracized.]
5. I admire all the bloggers who also have busy jobs and budding families, and I hope they figure out a way to play all those roles well.
Okay, that’s enough personal, squishy stuff. If I don’t get back to provocation, I might put you all to sleep.
I’ve been an opinionated blogger for 8 weeks now and a few things are already clear about me and blogging:
1. Blogging feels addictive, and I can’t “just say no.”
2. Blawggers are a real community, and so far I’ve only seen the positive side of being a member (special thanks to Carolyn, Walter, Ernie, Robert, Genie, Tom, Stuart, Ken, et al., for your warm welcome, continuing interest, and/or thoughtful tolerance)
3. Blogging feels like a job, but it’s the first job I’ve ever had that I always enjoy getting (and staying) up to do — even when I’m complaining about all the work and worried about voicing opinions on important subjects in such a public way
4. The best unexpected benefit of writing Op/Ed pieces for my own weblog: I get to write my own headlines. After years bemoaning editors who caption my pieces with a little too much attitude, with exaggeration, or with no apparent understanding of the content or the point, I’m loving the role of BlOpEditor — responsible for my own captions, and glad of it. [One particularly aggravating example from my past: Five years ago, my local newspaper, on the front page of the Sunday opinion section, ran the following headline with my piece asking for more lawyer competence and diligence, and supporting mandatory CLE (which the local bar still opposed): Sad to Say, Bad Lawyers Aren’t the Exception. Although I did say there are too many of them, I did not say that bad lawyers were the rule, and I did make appropriate disclaimers about all the honest, able, hardworking ones I’d seen. Thanks to that headline, a number of colleagues in town still cross the street when they see me coming. I don’t mind being provocative, but I really hate being ostracized.]
5. I admire all the bloggers who also have busy jobs and budding families, and I hope they figure out a way to play all those roles well.
Okay, that’s enough personal, squishy stuff. If I don’t get back to provocation, I might put you all to sleep.