Thank you for agreeing to serve as a mentor. Mentoring relationships are key to associates' career growth and their development of thriving practices and networks within the firm.
Mentoring Matters
Meaningful mentor relationships benefit not only the mentor and the mentee, but the entire firm. Successful mentorships help recruitment efforts, associate retention and associate engagement. As a mentor, you are a valued resource for providing advice, insights and feedback that you've gained through your own experience. You also are crucial in guiding your mentee to find integral connections, in support of both their own professional development and a vibrant firm culture.
Building A Meaningful Mentoring Relationship Reach out on your mentee's first day, or as soon as possible after the mentor pairing, to set up an initial meeting. Let the mentee know you are invested by being available, relatable, transparent and candid. At your first meeting, learn about your mentee. Has your mentee worked in a legal environment before? What brought your mentee to the firm or to a particular practice? Knowledge about your mentee's background and career goals will help you to provide appropriate guidance and point them to helpful resources. Ask questions beyond work assignments and billable hours. Learning a bit about each other's interests and life outside of the office can help form more impactful and rewarding mentoring relationships. You should meet with your associate mentee no less than once per quarter, but more frequent meetings are encouraged, particularly while getting to know each other.
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Practice Highlights. Share details about your practice area and your day-to-day work life.
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Managing Assignments and Workload. Suggest questions that your mentee should ask when receiving a work assignment to more fully understand the assignment and the assigning lawyer's expectations, and how he or she should follow up during the assignment. Give guidance on managing concurrent deadlines, including how the associate should communicate that he or she needs help with prioritizing. Discuss the importance of being proactive and the helpfulness of providing more frequent status updates and checkins on projects. Share your own expectations of the associates with whom you work as examples of what may be important to the partners with whom your mentee works.
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Work Product. Advise on effective and efficient approaches to preparing written work product, particularly if your mentee is new to practicing in a firm environment.
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Professionalism. Share lessons learned about time management, organization, responsiveness, problem solving, issue spotting, judgment, initiative, reliability and building an internal reputation.
Communication. Provide advice on effective written and oral communication, including guidance on best practices for communicating with clients, opposing counsel and other attorneys within the firm.
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Practice Development. Encourage the long view. Help your mentee identify their talents and interests, and explore how they can develop those areas within a practice. If the associate is more senior, ask about the direction that their career has taken and if they are satisfied. Encourage the associate to attend closings, hearings, depositions and other worthwhile events that you are involved in as an observer even though the time may not be billable.
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Insights and Experience. Think of the wisdom that you've gained along the way. What is something you wish someone had told you as an associate? Provide your mentee with information – such as how to handle a mistake or missed deadline, how to prioritize work when deadlines are in conflict, and effective ways to develop relationships with partners and clients – along with stories about your own experiences.
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Connection. Discuss the importance of developing a network – inside and outside the firm – and how you can help. Identify colleagues with similar interests, or, better yet, make an introduction. Remember that you are an especially important connection for your mentee, and get to know each other. Encourage your mentee to invest in the firm's culture and engage with colleagues.
Evaluation Process
As a mentor, you will attend formal evaluation conferences along with your mentee and your mentee's Practice Group Leader. For Level 1 and 2 associates, these conferences take place twice a year. For all other associates, the evaluation conference is an annual meeting in the first quarter of the year. Before the conference, you will receive access to the written evaluations of your mentee's work; please review these evaluations and speak with the Practice Group Leader in advance of the conference to discuss any questions about the substance of the evaluation. The Practice Group Leader will lead the evaluation conference; your role is to support the message and mentor the associate going forward. For more information on how to help associates receive feedback, please see Asking for, Receiving and Implementing Feedback.
Mentor Expenses
Mentor lunches and other mentoring activities, except for lunch on a new hire's first day, are generally not reimbursable. Lunch on a new hire's first day is charged to the recruiting budget. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Executive Partner or Recruiting Manager.
Additional Resources • • • •
Getting Started as a Mentor (SkillBurst) Mentoring Across Differences (SkillBurst) Mentoring Attorneys in the 21st Century (PLI) How to be a Great Mentor to Associate Attorneys (MLA Global)