Mentoring is critical to good law practice. If you are old enough to be a member of the Senior Lawyers Conference, chances are you learned how to practice law from more experienced lawyers. Typically, a more experienced lawyer in a firm or community “adopted” a newly licensed lawyer and gave advice about how to succeed, avoiding the pitfalls of law practice. The mentor was a teacher, advocate, guide, confidante and, in the best of circumstances, a role model for the protégé.

Mentoring usually involved self-selection. New lawyers sought guidance from recognized leaders in their field. This system worked well for a long time. But the practice of law is changing. Time is more valuable, and the focus on billable hours discourages “non-productive” activities—such as teaching new lawyers how to practice law. The challenge is how to teach the practical and ethical aspects of law when powerful economic forces are against it.

The Mentor’s Role
New lawyers and lawyers in career transitions need mentoring. Usually lawyers rely on mentors to help them begin their practices, and mentors can be an important part of many professional transitions. The lawyer who has moved to a new city, taken up a new specialty or is faced with an unfamiliar ethical situation needs a mentor.

Mentors can serve as passive sounding boards and as active guides, helping protégés with their work and their careers. Mentors are often bridges to the larger community. But whatever the scope of involvement, a mentor should help an inexperienced lawyer become a competent attorney.

Relationships are the foundation of mentoring. The mentor/protégé team moves the protégé forward in his or her professional life, dependent upon the needs, desires and personalities of the two participants. This interaction is the essence of mentoring.

Early Experiences
Today’s law school graduates are in the same situation we were all in when we graduated. We didn’t have a clue about how to practice law. I graduated from Vanderbilt Law School in 1972. When I joined Hunton & Williams as an associate the following year, Hill Wellford handed me a complaint in a matter called Clanton, et al. v. Allied Chemical Company. That was the first time I had ever seen a court paper.

As the junior lawyer on a team defending a class action race discrimination case, I was given the opportunity to talk to witnesses and take simple depositions where I could do little harm. When I fumbled a question, Hill, opposing counsel, or even Dwain Savik, the court reporter, would make a better suggestion.

On the day before an important arbitration, I received a phone call from the head of the firm’s labor section, Frank Lowden, who asked me if our witnesses were prepared for the next day. “Of course they are,” I said. “They know where to be and at what time.” It became apparent that I did not know what “preparing” a witness meant. At least I had 24 hours to get it right.

Learning labor law was my priority. I filled my early days researching complex topics, reading thousands of case digests and writing memos. What made labor law come to life, however, was the time spent in Paul Thompson’s car on the way to and from representation hearings or labor negotiations. Paul was an encyclopedia of labor law. He explained what we were trying to do and which issues were important. I learned as much in Paul’s car as I had in the law books.

I am lucky to have learned how to practice law from talented and patient lawyers. They were, and still are, my mentors. Most senior lawyers have had similar experiences. Whether our mentors were in a large firm or a small practice, they showed us how to do things. Other experienced members of the bar taught us as well.

Without sacrificing their zealousness in representing their clients, even experienced adversaries made time to help new members of the bar.

Most of us who learned to practice law under the old paradigm did not know that we were being mentored. Our mentors may have been largely unaware of their own roles. They were passing on what they had learned in the same way they had been taught.

They taught us legal substance and procedural techniques and transmitted the values necessary for good lawyering. My mentors taught me that a lawyer’s word is sacrosanct and that integrity is non-negotiable. They taught me to always be prepared, to be reasonable, to treat everyone with civility and respect and to honor the courts.

The values instilled through mentoring form character, transform ethical mandates into habits of practice, and integrate personal and professional life to the benefit of both. These values are as important today as ever. The challenge is how to teach them in an environment where the practice of law is so different.

Teaching Professional Values
Law schools are commonly criticized for not teaching law students how to practice law. The criticism is unfair, but it does not seem to go away. Over the past several years, law school curriculum committees have continued the debate about the role of the law school. Some want a more clinical approach that emphasizes third-year practice, trial advocacy and negotiations. Others favor teaching students to think like lawyers and leaving skills development to the early years of practice.

While ethics courses are required, there is little, if any, exposure in law school to the day-to-day decisions lawyers must make—decisions informed by the Rules of Professional Conduct. New lawyers need guidance because classroom ethics courses do not prepare them for the daily ethical decisions of law practice.

Many law schools, law firms and bar associations teach the values and skills necessary for lawyers to practice at the highest level of professionalism. New attorneys have special needs. Many feel lost after law school. New lawyers in large firms feel isolated, especially if they took the jobs to pay off enormous law school debts. Law school requires long hours, but it comes as a surprise to many new graduates that a new law practice requires even more hours. They miss their outside activities and time with friends. Feeling miserable becomes normal. The pressure to excel at unfamiliar work wears down even the most resilient new graduate.

The Crisis of Morale
What many consider to be “success” in law practice—the accumulation of wealth—has undermined the traditional mentoring process. Many of today’s new lawyers will enter large practices where they are expected to bill at least 1,800 to 2,000 hours per year. This leaves very little time for nurturing relationships.

Competition among the largest firms for the top law students has, until recently, driven up starting salaries. This is reflected in hourly fees and billable hours requirements. Clients, reacting to the cost of legal services, resist a firm’s assigning more than one lawyer to a matter unless absolutely necessary. The attitude that “all time not collected is wasted” inhibits new lawyers from learning by observation.

The automobile ride tutorial has been replaced by CLE tapes.

The pattern of “grind it out until you become a partner” has become increasingly unattractive. The crisis of morale in our profession is well documented. Lawyers suffer higher rates of depression, alcoholism and unhappiness than the general population. Anthony T. Kronman’s The Lost Lawyer describes the decline of the lawyer-statesman into the lawyer-drudge.

The Modern Mentor
Given the forces against mentoring—limited time and billable pressures—the need for competent mentoring is greater now than ever before. Today’s lawyer may depend on more than one mentor.

The modern mentor:

• gives guidance and career support

• explains unwritten rules

• protects and advocates

• teaches skills and models behavior

• provides feedback and growth opportunities

• listens and builds confidence

• connects lawyers to broader networks

Mentoring becomes a long-term relationship grounded in trust.

Passing on the Tradition
Mentoring is an old-fashioned concept rooted in apprenticeship. It provides the transition from academic learning to practical lawyering.

A successful mentor does not try to create a replica of themselves. Instead, they help the protégé develop into a fully realized professional. The good mentor is concerned with the whole person. When a lawyer’s life is out of balance, judgment suffers—and without sound judgment, a lawyer cannot give good advice.

At its best, mentoring is a confidential relationship based on openness and trust. Above all, the good mentor is a good listener.

There is no way to adequately thank those who trained us. All we can do is pass it on.

Good mentoring is becoming more important just as time for it is becoming more scarce. But we can improve the situation. We can volunteer as mentors, build programs, and actively support the next generation.

Mentoring is not simply altruistic. It benefits the mentor as well. Staying connected to new lawyers forces us to remain open to new ideas and challenges our assumptions. One of the great joys of being a lawyer is continuing to learn.

By mentoring others, we strengthen our own skills and reconnect with the purpose of the profession.

The need is clear. The opportunity is present.

Helping new lawyers enter the profession with high standards of professionalism also helps us remember why we became lawyers in the first place.