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Mentoring: A guide for both sides
 By Richard J. Yurko
One of the great things
about the practice of law is that it remains a profession in which we learn
from each other. One increasingly
important place where that learning occurs is in the mentoring that a
junior lawyer receives from more senior lawyers. Like thousands of other
lawyers, I have benefited from the advice, help, and guidance of a handful
of more senior lawyers who took an interest in my progress and development
in the profession. After two decades of receiving such help, I began
to repay my debt to others by chairing the Boston Bar Association’s
Mentoring Committee.
Mentoring, however, is a subject little studied and little
acknowledged for the significant role it plays in the professional development
of
each of us. The
effective practice of law is not, and has never been, a subject that can be learned
solely from the reading of a textbook, a casebook, or a hornbook. It is learned
on the job, by watching others in the profession and, if one is fortunate, by
personal instruction from more senior lawyers.
Over time, what is taught by senior
lawyers has changed. Of course, in the nineteenth century it was still
possible and, indeed, commonplace to "read" law
by apprenticing oneself to lawyers in the practice. By the late 1800’s,
law schools had replaced apprenticeship as the main avenue to becoming a lawyer
and "reading" the law became less common. For all the advances that
law schools brought to the bar, something practical was missing. Much practical
information, beyond book-learning, was still left to be imparted from senior
lawyer to junior lawyer.
In my personal experience, in the 1970’s and 1980’s,
when law was first recognized to be as much of a business as it was a profession,
the younger
lawyers who fared the best in large firms were those young lawyers who had more
senior lawyers teach them how a hundred-lawyer (and now, a thousand-lawyer) law
firm really works.
Today, as more and more Boston law firms become the local
office of large multi-city firms, there is all the more need for senior
lawyers to show junior lawyers how
to practice law in an effective and professionally satisfying manner. Similarly,
when law firm mergers, dissolutions, downsizing, and right-sizing cause more
lawyers to strike out on their own or to join boutique firms, again, there remains
a substantial need for lawyers who have traveled that path to show others the
way.
Many larger Boston law firms have internal advising programs that have
roots
back in the 1970’s and 1980’s when the larger law firms started hiring
large classes of recent law school graduates. These programs range from the perfunctory
to the indispensable. Such programs can be the site for significant mentoring.
In addition, the BBA has its own mentoring program which matches junior lawyers
with senior lawyers in recognition that some junior lawyers would prefer to get
advice on workplace issues from lawyers that are not, in some form, their supervisors.
But again, mentoring can occur just as frequently, if not more frequently, outside
the structure of any formal program.
I am no mentoring guru, but over the last
few years of thinking about the subject, I have developed several guidelines
that can enhance the relationship between
a mentor and a junior lawyer. For the mentor, let me suggest:
- Listen to the
junior lawyer. Advice or guidance is best received, used and inculcated
when it is sought. Most often, the junior lawyer will let the senior
know what he is concerned about, what he doesn’t know, and what he doesn’t
understand. At least initially, let the junior lawyer set the agenda with the
questions he or she most wants addressed. There will be plenty of time later
for the senior lawyer to raise subjects the younger lawyer hasn’t thought
about.
- Create a non-threatening atmosphere. Make sure that the junior lawyer
knows you are available and willing to talk, especially if you are a mentor
in an automatic
firm-imposed mentoring program. Also indicate that there is no question or
concern too dumb or too basic. Only when the junior lawyer feels comfortable
asking the
most basic question will you have a less guarded give-and-take in which real
practical learning can occur. If a mentor has any difficulty here, he ought
to recall just how little he knew when he first started in practice.
Encourage contact
within the limits of your practical time constraints.
- Don’t artificially
confine the mentoring relationship to questions of pure law. Mentoring is not
restricted to any one subject. Certainly, it occurs
when a senior lawyer sits down with a junior lawyer and explains why and how
the rewriting of a brief or a contract is better than the junior lawyer’s
first attempt. But mentoring also occurs when a senior lawyer explains to a
junior lawyer large-firm billing practices or how to evaluate potential contingent
fee
cases. Mentoring also occurs when a junior lawyer is struggling to balance
competing demands of home and profession and seeks advice on striking that
balance, or
when a junior lawyer is trying to understand all the various professional paths
he or she can follow to becoming the best lawyer he or she can be.
- You definitely
don’t know everything. Admit it. Every day we all learn
new things in the practice of law, whether it be a point of law, an aspect
of business, or an aspect of human nature. If we are all still learning, then
even
the most senior of us at the bar can’t know everything. However, when
I am asked a question that is beyond my range of knowledge or experience, usually
I can think of someone else to rely upon for an answer. So, don’t be
afraid to let a junior lawyer know where you would go to find an answer and
then let
her loose to find the answer from that source.
- Often, there is no one answer,
but rather a variety of approaches. The older I get, the more I appreciate
that there are a variety of ways to look at things
and to get to where one wants to go. No good mentor wants to remake the junior
lawyer in her own image. Rather appreciate the differences between oneself
and the junior lawyer and understand that a different route may get the
junior lawyer
exactly where he wants to go.
- Be prepared to learn from the junior lawyer. One of the most rewarding aspects of being a mentor is that the junior
lawyer often contributes a great deal to
the relationship.
For the junior lawyer, let me suggest the following:
- If you don’t ask,
they won’t tell. Ask, ask, ask. When you want
to know something or don’t understand something, you need to ask. Most
senior lawyers have trouble recalling how little they knew as younger lawyers
and therefore may assume that you know something that you don’t.
- Timing
is everything. Our professional world can be a hectic place operating at
a frenetic pace. If you can, it is best to hold your questions until
a suitable
time when the senior lawyer can be more expansive and able to talk with you
in depth about something. Your interest in knowing something is never
an imposition
as long as you choose an opportune time to ask. Be respectful of your mentor’s
time and be flexible with your time.
- Ask concrete rather than hypothetical
questions. This alerts your mentor that you really want to know and act on
the advice. For instance, it is better to
say, "I want to do X; how should I go about it" rather than just
to express an undifferentiated interest in a topic.
- Don’t be afraid to
get a little personal. Draw on the mentor’s
personal experience. Senior lawyers have made many mistakes in their professional
careers. If you ask how they personally did something, you are likely to learn
almost as much from their missteps (which you can now avoid) as from the path
that eventually got them where they wanted to go. Don’t pass up opportunities
that your mentor may give you to go to out-of-the-office functions where you
can meet others in the profession and in business.
- Search out several mentors. One mentor will be better on some issues; another mentor on other issues.
Look for advice from those senior lawyers who are willing
to help and don’t think that any one person has all the answers. Soon
enough, your several mentors will form the backbone of your professional
support network
of peers.
- A little thanks goes a long way. If a mentor helps you out, let
him or her know that you appreciate the help and their time. A simple
thank you or,
even
better, feedback is a great way of ensuring that your mentor remains a resource
over the long haul. Our careers are marathons and not a succession of quick
sprints.
Mentoring isn’t always formal. Some of the best mentoring relationships
develop naturally outside any formal program and include interactions with other
senior lawyers, clients, and businesspeople.
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