The Tables Have Turned: Four Tips for Being an Impactful Mentor

The importance of mentors is often impressed upon us as young professionals. A strong mentor-mentee relationship can be a critical component of career development and advancement. As lawyers, we are encouraged to seek out mentors when we are fresh-out-of-law-school attorneys or junior associates. We are instructed to look to more senior professionals, both within our organization and outside.

At some point, we gain seniority and experience and find ourselves being those professionals that law students and junior associates look to for advice. Before we know it, we have become someone else's mentor. Thankfully, because we've seen a diverse range of mentoring styles, we also can identify a handful of tips for being a terrific mentor.

Be Relatable

Although it may seem like forever ago that you were studying for the LSAT, stressing through your second year of law school, or struggling to keep your head above water as a first-year associate, it wasn't. And while the source of stress has changed, we can all remember the growing pains of becoming an attorney.