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Too Few Mentors
At some time in your career, especially when you were new to the profession, you probably had occasion to seek out the advice of a more experienced lawyer. And, hopefully, you have been in the position to reciprocate by offering that kind of support to another lawyer. This type of interaction is and should be a regular part of lawyering, but for some reason is receiving less attention than it is due.
ethicalesq? has a great article on the shortage of mentors and what that means to the legal profession. 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.
Read more »
I think that in some ways technology advancements have contributed to loss of mentoring as a focus. There used to be a time when lawyers congregated at the courthouse's lawyer lounge, where younger lawyers had full access to lawyers with more experience, and literally right before the younger lawyers might be heading into court for an important appearance. Now, lawyer lounges of this type have virtually disappeared. I actually identified this is part of the reason I created
Lawyer Lounge, my online replacement for the lounge at the courthouse.
Lawyers no longer retreat to the lawyer lounge to call their office between appearances. That need has been replaced by cell phones. No longer is it necessary to make a trip to the courthouse law library, as online legal research has become so dependable that books are not picked up as much.
All of this change has made lawyers more efficient, but it has impacted traditional interactions between younger and more experienced lawyers. In the same way that technology is partially responsible for some of these developments, it also provides a solution. Younger lawyers simply need to be encouraged to look for mentors online. More experienced lawyers should encourage this by exchanging email addresses, and instant message I.D.'s with lawyers they are willing to mentor.
Another great opportunity for mentoring is use of a collaborative web site like
OneBigBlawg.com, where more experienced lawyers can post practice tips for an entire audience of younger lawyers, including questions and answers in our forums section. This makes it convenient, and quick to offer support to someone in need, not to mention the example it sets for younger lawyers on how to make good use of technology.
It appears that there may be a movement under foot to make mentoring mandatory. When we leave it up to others to decide for us how such obligations should be accomplished, we very rarely like the result. The time would be now to take a proactive step, and show the community that we can offer effective solutions without have more rules and regulations.
Here's an action item that might provide a positive first step. Find a younger attorney who could benefit from your mentoring, and invite them to sign up at
OneBigBlawg.com. Exchange email addresses, and Instant Message I.D.'s, and set up a plan for how you will make yourself available to your protege. Make sure they get their free listing in
LawyerTree.com, and their complimentary marketing consultation.
Encourage your colleagues to do so as well. Let's do a survey in six months to see how many younger attorneys we have been able to assist through this process, and in that way know that we are positively affecting the practice of law not only through our representation of clients, but through our leadership in nurturing younger attorneys.
Any other ideas on how we can further develop this concept would be warmly appreciated. Our thanks to
ethicalesq? for addressing this very important issue.
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