St. Thomas Law Mentor Blog

In Mentor Externship we spend a lot of time talking about how important it is to build and protect your professional reputation.  It takes a lifetime to build your reputation and a day to destroy it. 

However, how often do we think about how our actions affect the collective reputations related to us?  What we do not only reflects on us but it also reflects on our mentors, our employers, and the other organizations of which we are a part.  I remember when I began at my law firm we had practice group meetings and Saturday training sessions that not only helped with skill development, those sessions also focused on doing things the “Rider Way”.  It was constantly drilled into new associates that when they appeared in court or interacted with opposing counsel their actions not only said something about them, they said something about our firm.  New associates benefited from the great reputation built by those who preceded them and they were expected to conduct themselves in a way that built that reputation not damaged it.

This point also applies to how students conduct themselves in MentorExternship.  Our students are out in the community often.  Our first students worked hard to use the mentor program to build a positive reputation.  Each new class of students benefits from that reputation.  However, each new generation of students also risks destroying that reputation if they do not conduct themselves with the highest levels of professionalism. I hope students always consider how their actions impact the rest of our community. 

Thinking about the larger group is not currently in vogue.  Our culture often emphasizes and even glorifies the individual.  We do not emphasize our collective obligations to one another.  Yet, as a peer reviewed profession part of our professional training is to hold each other and ourselves accountable for how our actions impact not only ourselves but each other too. 

So, whether you are a law student or an attorney, give some thought to how hard others worked to build the reputation of your organization and how your own actions impact that reputation.  I think back to helpful advice one of my own mentors used to give all of us as new associates, borrowed from the old television drama Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there.”

In our next Mentor Externship class session we are going to be discussing client service.  How do you become in demand for your clients?  Provide great service to them. Step one is to be available.  It seems simple doesn’t it?  This weekend sportsillustrated.cnn.com had a profile of noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews.  Anyone who follows sports knows about Dr. Andrews.  He is famous in sports for being THE medical expert.  What was interesting about this profile, though, is that is looked back on how Dr. Andrews rose to fame. 

So what is Dr. Andrews’ secret?  Patient service.  Early on in his career he established a habit of being available to his patients when they needed him, a legacy he has carried forward to today.  A related secret? He uses the phone or in person meetings, not e-mail. In the article Dr. Andrews describes his approach:

” ‘You see this,’ Andrews said on a recent fall morning, holding up his cell phone. ‘I return calls. Everyone’s calls.  This morning I had calls in from 10 NFL teams, and I’ll get back to all of them today. My whole career I’ve always tried to be accessible. That’s as important to me as anything. If you call me, you know I’ll get back to you.’ ”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/the_bonus/11/23/dr.andrews/index.html#ixzz16gyL2I9V

In short, Dr. Andrews built his reputation and his career by developing and sustaining personal relationships.  He takes calls from almost everyone who seeks his opinion.  His former patients, from the famous to the unknown, recommend him to everyone they meet because of the service he provides, the relationships he builds with everyone he treats.

The same lessons can be applied to the law.  Be passionate about what you do and fully service each relationship you establish.  Invest in taking care of your clients when they need you not just when it is convenient to you.  Care about those relationships.  While I can’t guarantee that you will be as well known as Dr. Andrews, clients are always looking for lawyers who care about the service they provide.

Lawyers often need to be creative problem solvers.  At the same time, we live in a world filled with deadlines, rules, and stress.  Sometimes those deadlines, rules, and stress box us in and inhibit our ability to creatively problem solve.  So how do you break out of the box and reengage your creative side?

In the August 2010 Edition of the Psychology Today, researchers Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson of North Dakota State University shared the results of a study on improving creativity.  They found that students did far better on creativity testing after thinking like a seven year old. 

Robinson believes that some aspects of thinking like a kid can activate our creative problem solving skills.  He suggests trying some of the following approaches to improve your creative problem solving:

1) Don’t take yourself so seriously.

2) Find time everyday for one spontaneous activity. 

3) View task as opportunity for explorative rather than duties. 

4) Be present and live in the moment to appreciate fun when it naturally occurs.

5) Resist the argue to fill up all of your free time.

If you are stuck and looking for ways to generate creative solutions, you may want to consider trying Robinson’s suggestions.

Our 2^nd Year Mentor Externship students were recently asked to perform a self assessment on their organizational and time management skills as part of a profession on that topic.  They were also encouraged to ask their mentors how they keep their professional obligations organized.  What emerged from our readings, the self assessments, and class dialog was a helpful array of organization and time management suggestions. 

The wide variety of systems that worked for different students and for different lawyers was a good reminder that there is no one solution for organization and time management.  Good time management and time organization requires honest self reflection.  We have to match up our strengths and weaknesses with the tools or organizational systems that work best for us.  We also have to be okay with a system that works best for us even if it doesn’t work for others.  I thought there was a great post on Lawyerist recently on this very topic.  The author, Randall Ryder, raised the excellent observation that the quest for organization can become a distraction in and of itself.  Some people are constantly implementing new systems in the quest for something better.  The end result is a hodgepodge of different organizational techniques and systems that leaves the person worst off than they were to begin with depsite pouring massive amounts of time into their quest.  Ryder’s advice matches the take away from our group discussion; you have to go with the organizational system that works best for you.

Mentor Externship is featured this month at equippingourlawyers.org.  Equippingourlawyers.org is a collaboration between the American Law Institute (ALI), the American Bar Association (ABA), and The Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA).  The groups held a critical issues summit in 2009 entitled “Equipping Our Lawyers: Law School Education, Continuing Legal Education and Legal Practice in the 21^st Century”.  After the summit the groups prepared a report with recommendations.  You can read the recommendations here. Mentor Externship is highlighted this month as a model for integrating experiential learning and mentoring into legal education.

The National Jurist has ranked the University of St. Thomas School of Law number one in the country for externship placements.  Thank you to all of the students and mentors whose enthusiasm and effort make Mentor Externship a success every year!