Many young legal professionals know plenty about the law but almost nothing about getting their careers up and running. To start on the right foot, they may need a mentor who can help them set professional goals, steer them toward career-boosting assignments and give them access to influential people and networks.
These pairings can take many different forms, but all benefit both the adviser and the protégé.
Pre-pandemic, it was common for mentors to drop by their mentees' office for a quick chat, take them out for coffee or gather all their protégés together for a group lunch. This kind of rapport-building is priceless, but it's hard to maintain when many legal professionals limit their in-person interactions and often avoid the office altogether.
Rather than abandoning their mentees, the best mentors have worked out how to maintain these relationships from a distance. Virtual meetings have replaced physical ones, and "my door is always open" has become "call me anytime." Mentoring in a socially distanced world may even have some advantages. For example, it wasn't always feasible or affordable to take mentees to a hearing or deposition in another state. Now, with many proceedings still being held online, it's never been easier to expose entry-level lawyers to the sharp end of the litigation process.
