CBA Record March-April 2024

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

Parting Advice for Both Mentees and Mentors Sometimes, a mentor and mentee may not be a good fit for each other or cannot connect on any basis. For others, the mentee may be moving to a new prac tice area, legal practice setting, or even geographic location, and their mentor’s advice is longer relevant. People change, and so do relationships. Not all mentor ing relationships are meant to last for life, especially if the relationship was intended to meet a specific short-term goal. Do not worry if you feel you are drifting apart or take offense if the other party wants to end the relationship. Send them on their way and provide a soft landing by intro ducing them to a colleague who may be able to help them on the next step of their journey. Doing so allows for the possibil ity of reopening the mentoring relation ship, or even friendship, down the road. Find some common ground. It’s easier

and their preferences for communica tion, meetings, and level of formality for the relationship. Doing so will allow both of you to build a rapport more quickly and enable you to work as effectively as possible together. If you are mentoring a colleague in your office, find a way to sponsor them . Mentoring and sponsoring a colleague may feel similar, but they are often radically different. Mentoring is giving advice to a mentee. Conversely, sponsoring someone means advocating for them or exposing them to opportunities. Serving as a sponsor can include advocating for someone else’s promotion in your workplace; introducing them to relevant bar associations, contacts, and colleagues in the legal profession; giving the mentee first author credit on an article; or giving them more substantive work on your cases. Sponsoring a mentee you trust can make all the difference in their career, so use your power wisely.

to build a relationship with a mentor or mentee when you share something in common. For some, that can be easy, due to a shared background or interests. While sometimes it can be difficult in some cases to find those similarities with your men toring partner, remember that you are both lawyers and may even be in the same practice area. Starting broadly will, over time, funnel into a relationship that will allow you not only to consider, respect, and value differences, but also learn just how similar lawyers, and people, are at the end of the day.

Kenneth Matuszewski, an Associate at Goldberg Segalla LLP who focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation, is also the First Vice Chair of the Young Lawyers Section.

Local Solutions. Global Reach.

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