St. Thomas Law Mentor Blog

By: Adam Heuett

As students, we may not realize how much input we have over our mentor selection.  We get the survey and maybe we fill it out.  It is worth it to think about what kind of mentor you want and to put that information into the survey at the end of the year, or before coming to law school if you will be a 1L in the fall.  Here are some things to consider to find the right mentor to fit your needs and desires.

Practice Area

This category is probably the most obvious one for most students.  Do you want a prosecutor? A civil litigator? An IP attorney?  A lot of us are not sure what area of practice we want to look at, however, and that is also fine.  I definitely fell into this group as an incoming 1L.  Take advantage of the program to explore some of the areas you think you might want.

Location

This category may require some forethought.  Do you know where you are going to be living next year?  Will you have access to a car?  Do you plan to use mass transit?  Do you want a mentor whose office is closer to the law school, or closer to your residence?  If you want a trial attorney and you live closer to the Ramsey County Courthouse than the Hennepin County Courthouse, this may be a factor to consider.   An often overlooked question is, where do you hope to practice after law school?  The mentor experience is a great chance to network and can help you build connections where you want to practice.

Diverse Experiences

Aside from the practice area that you want to see, you should also consider whether or not he/she wants a mentor who can offer a wide variety of experiences, or if you want to see the same type of experiences with different clients and fact patterns.  For example, my mentor for my 1L had mostly mediations to offer me as experiences.  My mentor 2L year had a wider variety of experiences available for me, such as client intake interviews, legislative committee meetings, and MSBA section meetings.  I found both mentor experiences extremely valuable, but they were different types of relationships. 

Other Factors

Are there any other factors that seem very important to you?  Perhaps it is the type of practice setting (in house, private practice, public interest) or the size of the practice setting (comparing a big firm to a smaller firm).  Maybe what matters to you is your mentor’s gender or background.  All of these types of considerations are things to think about.  If you  have strong preferences be sure to share them.  It can help the program administrators to pair you with a mentor who best fits your needs!

By: Adam Heuett

                 As students, I think we often get side-tracked by the logic, the arguments, and all of the legal minutiae.  It is so easy to forget what the law is really about; why it was (and is) made.  At both its most fundamental and extravagant levels, the law is about relationships.  The law defines how people can interact with one another, how the government can interact with the people (and vice-versa), how the government can interact with other governments, etc.  These are all relational delineations.  Though the legal lines are not always clear, the law weaves significant patterns in the way that people interact with one another.  Lawyers are known by many names in this country: lawyer, attorney, prosecutor, defender, advocate, barrister, jurist, practitioner, legal eagle, etc.  Because of the true nature of the law, as relational, none of these terms are as important as the attorney’s name/role as counselor.

                We live in an era where attorneys are sometimes loved and, unfortunately, at times reviled.  The adversarial nature of our business leads many to dwell on the negative.  People sometimes label us as cutthroats or brigands who charge outrageous prices and take our roles as “zealous advocates” a little too seriously.  How easy we forget that diplomats, ambassadors, and peacemakers the world over are often lawyers.  They use their knowledge of the law to counsel peoples and countries back into right relationship.  Every day that we work for justice, every day that we work for the good of our clients, we are counseling people and society back into right relationship.

                It is not hard to view our mentors as counselors.  They advise us on academics, counsel us through difficult situations, nudge us in the right direction, and question us in order to help us grow and someday be strong attorneys.  They help us develop our moral compasses as they relate to legal matters, and help us to see our clients as people, not cases or claims.  When we are struggling with difficult concepts, or sometimes even life issues, they are there to listen and provide support.  This is a role they play not only for their protégés, but for their clients as well.  Every day lawyers guide their clients through difficult relationships.  Every day, lawyers act as counselors.  If the public understood this role better, if we all understood this role better, I think the profession and society would be a lot better off.  The most important work we do as attorneys is counsel, because when we counsel, we fulfill the very purpose of the law: to guide and build relationships.

                I encourage you to talk with your mentors and colleagues about the attorney as counselor.  How do we act as counselors?  How can we be better counselors?  How can we, as a profession, make the world a better place through the facilitation of right relationships?  We can be the movers and shakers, we need only shift our focus from the negative, to the positively amazing works we can, and are, accomplishing every day.

By Adam Heuett – Student Contributor  

              Humans are emotional creatures affected by a variety of intense internal and external causes.  In other words, we do not exist in a vacuum of emotional stimuli, so it is impractical to think that we could ever eradicate stress (the product of our emotional reactions) completely from our lives.  We should, however, diligently work to avoid the “glass case of emotion” so eloquently described by Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.  One of the best ways to avoid this case is to break out of it and reach out to our fellow humans.  Once of the best ways to combat stress is to utilize your allies, especially your law mentor.  Friends and family are always helpful, but many of them cannot directly relate to what you are going through unless they have gone to law school as well.  The stress of constantly pouring over dense legal texts, cases, and theories, the fear of being called on in class, the papers, the oral arguments and, oh yes, the finals…that one test that determines an entire semester’s worth of study in one subject.  When all of these things start to weight on you, it is nice to talk to someone who has not only been there, but who persevered through the intensity.

                Up until this point, your relationship with your mentor may be strictly professional with the occasional casual conversation about school, his/her law practice, the weather, etc.  It is good to note, however, that your mentor is there for more than just providing a professional example; he or she can also be a personal and professional guide as you work your way through law school and into the legal profession.  Next time you sit down to talk with your mentor, ask him or her about the most stressful part of his/her practice.  How does your mentor deal with the stress?  You can even ask your mentor about his or her law school experience and survival methods.  You really have nothing to lose by getting to know your mentor on another level and opening up.  This can only improve the mentor-protégé relationship.

                One thing to keep in mind, however, is that when we are stressed or troubled, we often look for people to give us “the answer” that is going to fix everything.  While your mentor can certainly provide advice and helpful tips, he or she may not have the exact answer that is going to work for you.  Ultimately, it is up to us to find out what works best and candid conversation with your mentor is a great place to start.  At the very least, you are going to get some great tips and you never know how fruitful those tips may be in the long run.

These techniques for making the most out of your mentor relationship are designed with three goals in mind: 1) providing you with the most knowledge and experience possible, 2) helping you stand out amongst your peers, and 3) ultimately, landing you the right type of job after law school.  We all know the current economy and understand the difficulties of finding a job.  The mentor program offers us unique opportunities to build both relationships and skills that can give us a head start in our career.  We should capitalize on that to make ourselves stronger students and stronger future employees.

Developing a Map

The Personal and Professional Development Plan (PPDP) that every student completes with his/her mentor is a great guide to starting off your mentor relationship, but it need not encompass the entirety of the relationship.  Think of the PPDP as a starting point: it provides some specific examples of experiences you want to see, as well as an overall objective/mission for what you want out of the mentor experience.  As you go through the year, however, you should be at least mentally cultivating a more comprehensive map out of what you want from your mentor experience.  For instance, let’s say that on your PPDP, you listed an arbitration and a mediation as two experiences you want this semester with your mentor.  During the arbitration, one lawyer brings up a witness deposition.  The idea of a witness deposition sparks an interest in you and you want to see one.  After the arbitration, when you discuss or debrief the experience with your mentor, you can ask to see a deposition. 

Utilizing your Mentor’s Network

Your mentor may or may not have a witness deposition on schedule in the near future.  If not, you can always ask your mentor to ask colleagues if you may accompany them to a deposition.  Mentors commonly make such requests of their colleagues, so be assured that this is a normal practice that does not violate the one-on-one relationship with your mentor.

Another great way to utilize your mentor’s job network is to make a good impression on your mentor’s colleagues.  Get to know them, be friendly and interested in their work.  Making a good impression makes you memorable, and that many more people will now know you, remember you, and hopefully recommend you.

Capitalize on Opportunities

Your mentor may have new experiences for you that were not originally on the plan: a recently scheduled motion or new client meeting, for example.  Attend as many of these invitations as possible, even if they do not sound initially wow you or fit on your larger map.  You never really know if the experience is interesting unless you give it a try, and by attending more experiences, you increase your knowledge of the lawyer’s role in general.

Another great reason to accept these invitations is that, by doing so, you express your enthusiasm for the many wonderful opportunities your mentor has to offer.  By attending these experiences and showing this enthusiasm, you are more likely to receive more invitations in the future.  If you cannot attend one of the events, explain to your mentor that you have a scheduling conflict and express your sincere gratitude for the invitation.  This way, the mentor understands that you are interested next time an opportunity arises.

Do More

Just as the PPDP is a starting point for the experiences on your map, the program requirements are a starting point for how much you can do with the opportunities offered to you through the program.  A lot of us, myself included, start off the mentor relationship looking to complete the minimum number of hours and the minimum number of experiences.  When I started this year, however, my mentor asked me if I wanted to meet every other week.  At first I was very apprehensive about this invitation because I thought that there was no way I could fit it into my schedule.  I realized, however, that we would only be meeting once every two weeks for an hour or two at most, and this would allow me more exposure and experience. 

I know that, as a 1L especially, the prospect of an extra two hour meeting every other week can seem somewhat daunting.  But if you look at it from the standpoint that these two hours provide you real-world application to the concepts you are learning in your courses, then it is easy to see how the time can be beneficial and even give you an edge come exam time.  During 2L and 3L years, you are still busy, but you have more flexibility and control over your schedule.  Although 2L and 3Ls tend to be more involved in other activities, they should also realize the great opportunities of the real-world experience a mentor can provide.  By spending more time with your mentor, you develop more trust and increase your professional exposure and skill set, and from there, who knows?

 While these techniques may seem simple, they can go a long way towards building a great relationship with your mentor.  By making the most out of your mentor relationship, you are not only making yourself a better student, you gain special knowledge and build key relationships that will help you achieve that final goal of attaining a job after graduation.

Regardless of whether you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert, many students are nervous about making a good impression on their mentor.  After all, this is a practicing, successful attorney and we are law students who are just getting our footing in the legal world.  The apprehension is natural, normal, and maybe even healthy, but do not let it stress you out. Here is some quick advice, from the law student perspective, on how to make a successful first impression on your mentor.

Load Up on Information

Before you contact your mentor, it is a good idea to learn as much about him/her as possible.  Most of us will be able to simply type our mentors name into Google and return at least a little information about mentors.  However, being well prepared means going beyond a basic google search.  The “Law Mentor Program” link under “My Organizations” in your Blackboard profile has great ideas for overcoming “Search Overload.”  Click on the “Documents” button to the left and look for “Researching Your Mentor.”  You can get a whole host of information about your mentor that you can use to be knowledgable during the first contact and your first meeting.  Loading up on mentor information is a great way to make a positive first impression by demonstrating your investment into the relationship.

Close the Lap-Top, Pick up the Phone

Your next decision may be whether to e-mail your mentor or call your mentor.  For many students, e-mail feels infinitely easier than the phone.  We are fast typists and we can hide our apprehension behind lines of well-articulated, edited text.  What’s not to love about the speed and convenience of e-mail, right?  Well, for starters, it is incredibly impersonal and can cause issues with that first impression.  An e-mail that is too short can come off as curt or even rude.  Too long, and you can end up sounding like the over-excited student who talks too much.  Finding that perfect length and tone in a digital construct can be more time consuming than simply picking up the phone and dialing those ten digits.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate and love my e-mail; I use it on a daily basis to communicate with friends, family, colleagues, and professors, but it is not the right medium for that first introduction.  If you really want to stand out, give your mentor a call.  It does not have to be a long conversation, but it is the best way to say hello and set-up your first meeting.

Prepare Meeting Agenda Items

IIt is better to appear more detail-oriented than it is to come off as sloppy and unprepared.  I created an agenda for my first meeting.  Granted, it was short (it only had three points on it: 1) PPDP, 2) Requirements Checklist, and 3) Set-Up Experience Dates), but it looked professional and helped me feel more organized and less apprehensive going into the meeting.  I e-mailed a copy to my mentor before the meeting (like I said, e-mail is okay, just not for the very first contact) and brought a hard copy for him as well.  Make sure you think through how you can take the lead on each item you propose for your agenda.

I hope these three quick tips help with making contact with your mentor.  If you have other tips feel free to share them below.