What Can Mentorships Look Like?

We have spoken before about finding mentors that work for you. And having someone (or many someones) guide you is vital to a flourishing professional career. But when you’re new to this profession; when your family doesn’t consist of professionals—how do you find someone to take you under their wing?

Because I came up without having much (any) connections to the legal industry, I thought it would be helpful to show what my mentorships have looked like and how these relationships formed.

Overall, the main theme has been that my relationships grew organically—I never sought anyone out and asked if they would mentor me. Rather, I formed relationships with professors/professionals by working with them and that has led to opportunities to learn from them.

My first mentor wasn’t an attorney or even a professor at my college. Rather, she was a director of the Office of Multicultural Programs. So many students were drawn to her because of her real passion for her work, and her genuine concern for students. More than anything, she helped us feel welcome in a place that could, at times, feel very isolating. She helped us feel empowered by letting us know that even though there weren’t many students of color—those of there did matter and we could push for change. It was through her that I learned the importance of self-advocacy, compromise, and that it was ok to want to be a leader.

Notice that none of what she did had to do with applying to law school or practicing. Instead, JBB taught me to a better person overall. Our type of mentorship wasn’t just JBB concerned about my next career steps, but rather my experience as a whole. Finding these types of relationships at the beginning stages of your professional career can be tough, but they are so vital because they lay the foundation for the type of Counselor you will be. The key is that your mentor doesn’t need to be in the industry—they just need to be someone that will encourage you—in tangible ways, not just through emotional support—to seek out opportunities to improve yourself. Fortunately, in law school, I had a professor very similar to JBB that helped me in the same way.

But obviously, we do need mentors that can give you the low-down on how this system works, and these can feel just as tricky to find. Those that have guided me regarding more specific, nuanced aspects of law school/practice have been professionals (both higher ups and laterals) that were willing and able to give me advice in piecemeal. Whether that has been colleagues that are able to help me get through dilemmas at work or outside attorneys that help walk me through questions about procedure, client issues, etc. I have some “Go-To” attorneys, but I’ve never had anything formal or consistent with one particular person (and this is when I give my caveat that yes, obvi, my bosses guide me but my stance is that bosses can’t be mentors—it would just be too messy).

For me, this type of mentoring has worked incredibly well because I feel comfortable going to certain people for specific things without feeling the need to add more responsibilities the relationship.

Overall, I would say to not pigeon-hole yourself into thinking that mentoring looks and feels one particular way. Rather decide what kind of guidance you are looking for and go from there.
Finally, I would love to hear from those have had more formal mentorships and what that has been like (the good and the bad)!