Mentoring Program

Introduction:

A mentor acts as an advisor, guide, counselor, and teacher.  Mentoring is a time-honored tradition and a cornerstone of the American Inns of Court.   Accordingly, under the auspices of the Counselor, in consultation with the Chair of the Membership Committee,  the Inn has established a Mentoring Program that utilizes the Inn's Masters and Barristers to mentor Associates and Pupils.  The Mentoring Program will assist members in developing high standards of professionalism based upon internalized principles of appropriate behavior consistent with the legal profession's core values.

Goals:

The Mentoring Programing is intended to cultivate professional excellence in support of the American Inns of Court's goal of fostering excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills.  The specific goals of the Mentoring Program are to:

• Develop an understanding of generally accepted professional values and standards of behavior and the importance of professionalism in the practice of law.
• Build awareness of ethical obligations and of proper practices for avoiding mishandling of other's assets, conflicts of interest, neglect of matters, and civil liability problems.
• Improve professional skills necessary for the effective practice of law at a high level of competence.
• Develop an appreciation of the importance of supporting and improving the justice system, improving access to justice and the importance of active involvement in the profession and the community.

Administration:

Overall administration of the Mentoring Program is the responsibility of the Counselor in consultation with the Chair of the Membership Committee.  The responsibilities of administration include:

• Oversight of the operation of the Mentoring Program;
• Communicating with Inn members about the existence and organization of the Mentoring Program;
• Recruiting and organizing mentoring leaders, mentors, and protégés and working with mentoring leaders to match mentors with protégés;
• Generating and maintaining a non-inclusive, illustrative list of potential mentoring topics;
• Establishing appropriate mechanisms for accountability to ensure the Mentoring Program is successful; and
• Periodic evaluation to improve the Mentoring Program.

Operation:

• Mentoring groups.  Mentoring will be conducted within the pupilage groups assigned at the beginning of each Inn year.  Each pupilage group will have a mentoring leader, appointed by the Counselor in consultation with the Chair of the Membership Committee, who is responsible for the pupilage group's mentoring activities and reports for the program year.  The mentoring leader will assign each Associate and Pupil within the pupilage group (the protégé) to a Master or Barrister within the pupilage group (the mentor).
• Duration of mentoring.  Each mentoring cycle lasts for the duration of one Inn program year.
• Frequency of meetings.  Each protégé should have at least three in-person meetings with mentors during the Mentoring Program year, either with the pupilage group as a whole or in mentor-protégé pair meetings.
• Length of meetings.  Normally, mentor-protégé meetings, whether within the pupilage group as a whole or with individual mentors and protégés, should last at least one hour.
• Time and place of meetings.  Mentoring leaders should facilitate convenient meeting schedules.
• Mentoring topics.  The Counselor in consultation with the Chair of the Membership Committee will generate and maintain a non-inclusive, illustrative list of potential mentoring topics to be covered in mentoring meetings.  High importance should be placed on the transmission of professional values to protégés by addressing professionalism to the extent possible, including (i) high competence in legal skills, (ii) adherence to ethical obligations, (iii) an appreciation of the importance of civility and professional demeanor in all dealings, (iv) the importance of pro bono representation and access to justice issues, (v) the importance of participation in bar organizations at the local, state, and national levels, (vi) the transmission of professional values and standards to less experienced members of the legal profession; and (vii) balancing self-interest with the interests of clients, the justice system, and the public interest.

Format and Schedule:

The following format, or one substantially similar as approved by the Counselor in consultation with the Chair of the Membership Committee, shall be used as a workable approach for most mentoring topics.

• Session One:  Group discussion with all mentors and protégés in pupilage group.
• Session Two:  One-on-one meeting(s) between individual mentors and protégés.
• Session Three:    Group discussion with all mentors and protégés in pupilage group.

Accountability & Evaluation:

1.           Each mentoring leader will provide one or more verbal progress report(s) to the Counselor and the Chair of the Membership Committee throughout the Inn year on the progress of the pupilage group's mentoring activities.

2.           To assist in continually improving the Mentoring Program, at the end of the program year, the Counselor and the Chair of the Membership Committee will evaluate the Mentoring Program, seeking input from mentors and protégés and using information from verbal reports from mentoring leaders, and providing the results and suggestions for improvement to the Executive Committee of the Inn.