When Norton Rose Fulbright’s Racial Equity Council pairs younger attorneys with more experienced attorneys, they don’t call the more seasoned attorney a mentor. Instead, he or she is dubbed a sponsor.

“The sponsor is the voice in the room who’s really advocating for you as an individual and taking a more personal approach to your development,” said Ryan Manns, who has been named Texas Lawyer’s 2023 Attorney of the Year. “I think that’s the distinction to make between a sponsor and a mentor. There’s a personal approach with the sponsor that really helps to accelerate the development of a protégé.”