Ohio Employment, Labor and Worker’s Compensation Law

Posted By Charles J. Cochran, Jr. on January 14, 2009

     Labor and Employment Law is the center of my practice and I often have an opportunity to educate my clients during the course of my representation.  Many of us do this and it does not particularly distinguish my practice from that of many of you.  However, what do we do about the “Education” of the Law Student or the newly minted Attorney?  Law School does not prepare the Student to actually go out into the community and fully understand the “How to” aspects of practicing law.  We, as Attorneys, need to take a more active role in their education.  In these days of “take care of yourself first” we often spend a great deal of time in the Attorney business doing just that. I would like to speak about something which I did last year for another, why I did it and share with you what it left with me.
I signed up with the Akron Bar Association to be a Mentor for a Law Student in their Mentor program. This is the first time that I took an Official position as a Mentor for a Law Student but it was not the first time where I “mentored” a new Attorney or have myself been “mentored”.  Over the years I have had the opportunity to share stories and advice with attorneys in wide areas of the law and my practice. I do not hold this up to a light to point at my virtues since this is something that most of us probably do. As an aside these type of interactions are often greatly beneficial to both sides and are at the least entertaining.  What I would like to point out is that the feeling of worth which comes from these types of action are greatly multiplied when you take them into a structured program such as the Mentoring programs set up by many of the Law Schools. When we provide advice on a sporadic basis to another Attorney we take with us the knowledge that we are giving something back to our profession and we establish a tenuous link with the Attorney which we helped.   This is a reciprocal process which I have often used to obtain information and advice from other Attorneys.  If you think about it there are probably many Attorneys who you know that you could  call with a question and fully expect they will help you with an Answer or at least a direction in which to look.  When advice is provided in a structured program, such as that found in a Law School Mentoring Program,  you have the opportunity to establish a strong link with the future Attorney and give yourself the opportunity to influence the actions of someone, who in all probability, will one day be part of your peer group.  These future Attorneys do not have the social links that we for the most part take for granted so what you are giving to them is cherished.
     The Medical profession provides for early stage mentoring in its internship programs but the Law does not provide for this structured type of review of the newly minted Attorney’s actions. Yes, if an Attorney fresh out of Law School goes to work at a Law Firm he will be mentored. However, the reason for the mentoring might not be totally altruistic and the Mentee knows that oversight is strongly grounded in business purpose. That is not to say that Firm Mentors are a heartless bunch, far from it, I am just saying that the advice which is given is colored by the underlying need to provide benefit to the Firm through advising the new Attorneys which have been associated with it. As most of us understand, the concept of “Secondary Gain” often rises in the course of litigation as a basis for discounting the severity of damages or the veracity of a witness. It takes little imagination to realize that a Mentee would probably incorporate a discount to any advice they receive when it comes in a business context. An additional layer of resistance will need to be overcome by the Mentor since the listener will need to answer the question of whether the advice is being offered to help them personally or being provided mostly for purposes of advancing the Law Firm’s agenda.
     It is my opinion that a voluntary Mentoring program where you advise the Law Student and you have no other association with this individual has the best chance of at least exposing someone to your values and procedures, which hopefully, are the shared values which we wish to see in our Profession.   These programs where you are dealing with the Student before he or she becomes an Attorney are, in my belief, of great import since you are writing on a fairly clean slate.  That is not to say that my goal is to create a lot of “mini me’s” out there in practice.   I would not credit myself with having that much influence over anyone, nor would I wish to.  I am just saying that it gives me an opening to speak to someone about the Practice of Law instead of the Business of Law and have the listener’s full attention and willingness to participate in the conversation. The Scenario is almost perfect since you have a speaker whose whole purpose is to help and a listener whose purpose it is to learn. It would take some stretch of the imagination to bring the thought of “Secondary Gain” into the equation to the same extent as when the Business of Law is at the least a secondary consideration in the conversation.
     These Law Students  are hungry for information and it is the obligation if not the moral duty of Attorneys who have been in the profession for awhile to give back what we have been given, as well as what we have learned and sometimes earned, to these people.
Please take the opportunity when it presents itself to help these Law Students to learn something about the Profession when you are given the chance. It can do nothing but help you in life and it will help all of us in turn.
     If you have in interest in becoming part of the Mentoring process you need only contact a local Law School and determine if they have a Mentoring program in which you can contribute and make a difference in what is “Our Profession”.   I have just been contacted by the Law School for this years round of Mentoring and find myself looking forward to this challenge.  Thank you for taking the time to read what I have written and I hope you have found something worthwhile to think about from what has been said.   Chuck Cochran

Categories: Professionalism/Aspirations
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