Who influenced you when you were starting out? Do you look back fondly to the kind lawyer who guided you through ethical dilemmas in your early years at the bar? Or did you have to do it the hard way, without a mentor, learning what worked and what didn’t literally through trial and error?
Senior lawyers are in a position to help the next generation climb the steep “new lawyer” learning curve, thanks to a variety of mentoring initiatives.
The B.C. branch of the CBA Women Lawyers’ Forum runs a groundbreaking mentoring program. Deborah Zutter, who co-chairs the Women’s Mentoring Committee, says that it grew out of an initiative to prevent women from leaving the profession. Interested prospective mentors and mentees complete an application and are matched based on geography and specific needs of the mentees.
“Frequently, the issues are how to maintain a work/life balance, or how to survive in a large firm, or tips for running a sole practice,” Zutter says. The mentoring program is highlighted by events such as orientation lunches, communication training and seminars.
Law societies in other provinces are also developing mentoring programs with a more limited focus. “Our mentoring program is a one-off occasional consultation, when lawyers have no one to talk to about a file,” says Ross McLeod, Practice Director for the Law Society of Alberta.
“We keep a list of lawyers and they make themselves available to members who need a quick shot of advice.” This is particularly useful for sole practitioners, McLeod says, because they may feel isolated and unable to easily find colleagues to talk with about problem files.
Lawyers who mentor find the experience rewarding. Zutter says that while most of the focus tends to be on what the mentee gets out of the program, “our mentors say they learned something new from the experience, they enjoyed the relationship, forged friendships that will carry on, and that it was invigorating and revitalizing.”
Bradley Berg, a partner at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto who mentors young lawyers at the firm, notes that “there are also key business reasons to mentor. You can attract and retain the best people around you — that is core in a law firm. We compete with many firms for the best students, and if we don’t mentor, we can’t get them and can’t retain them.”
Berg recommends mentoring as a positive experience. “If you’re wired to be a mentor and if you enjoy learning yourself, you’ll enjoy being part of the learning process for others.”
On August 15, 2008, the CBA launched the Pro Bono Mentorship Program.
Valerie Mutton is a freelance writer.