Welcome back. Hope everyone enjoyed their Teamsters holiday. To get you back in the OCI zone, I've got an interesting paper from Erika Abner on the various modes of vocational learning that are in play after an associate enters the working world, and how they may affect your career. From the abstract:
"This article examines the multiple workplace influences, including mentors and other developmental relationships, on the growth and development of young lawyers from law school through the first few years of practice."
And from the paper itself:
"The process of learning in law firms has been described as one of 'sink or swim', a metaphor that includes a series of assumptions about teaching and learning. First, learners in this environment must be self-directed — prepared to seek out learning resources and to exercise some level of control over the curriculum. Second, the practitioner-teachers assume that these learners are capable of being self-directed and able to function with limited support. As practitioners they enjoy limited responsibility for the success or failure of these learners. Learners who 'sink' are those unable to adapt and to control their environment by finding learning supports. Thus responsibility to ensure competent practice is devolved onto the learner and therefore effectively shifted from the more experienced practitioners."
This is probably a "no duh" assessment for a lot of law students who have spent time in law firms or out in the professional world. But Abner's paper (which used Canadian lawyers in their first few years of practice as a study group) offers an interesting argument for the importance of strengthened networking bonds within the firm - the mentor/mentee relationship actually demands less accountability from the mentor than it does from the mentee.
This seems to be at odds with the noted perils of not adequately aiding the development of first year associates (high attrition rates, for one), and with firms' highly publicized attempts to market themselves as newbie-friendly (Facebook recruiting pages). No doubt you are all hearing in your interviews what a great place Firm XYZ is to work and learn. But who knows if that's all just "practitioner" hot air. The paper's assessment is a harsh one, but it may just be correct. One second year associate, after reading the paper, told me "my 'mentor' doesn't even answer my emails."
The ABA Journal also has issued a nice little warning to all the wide-eyeds: not every mentor is an associate's friend.
Abner's paper can be downloaded here, via Feminist Law Professors and The Situationist.
"Hope everyone enjoyed their Teamsters holiday."
Just shot milk out my nose.
Posted by: the Rising Jurist | September 03, 2008 at 12:26 PM