Mentor Program

Overview 

As a John Marshall student, you have access to our Alumni Mentor Program, which offers you unparalleled opportunities to meet alumni and explore different career options. The program is available for 1st year/2nd semester students and 2nd year students (1st year/1st semester students can sign up in the spring).

Many students are not quite sure how they intend to use their law degree and find the Alumni Mentor Program helps them explore different options. Students who already have a plan to specialize in a particular practice area can use the Program to meet other practitioners in the field and learn more about the “real world” outside of law school classes.

Mentors represent a variety of career specific areas to help meet your individual career goals.

Law Firms: Specializing in a variety of practice areas, including juvenile and child welfare law, commercial and civil litigation, intellectual property, real estate, workers' compensation, family law, criminal law, and labor / employment law.

Government Sector: Specializing in a wide-array of areas, such as child support, felony criminal prosecution, labor, civil rights, and healthcare, and working in a range of offices, including the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, DuPage State's Attorney's Office, City of Chicago, and numerous other government employers.

Public Interest: Representing the interests of individuals traditionally underrepresented in the legal system, including minority groups, indigent people, children or the disabled, the incarcerated, among many others.

Corporate Sector: Focusing on areas such as banking, real estate, securities, telecommunications, as well as numerous others.

Out-of-State: If you are interested in practicing outside of Illinois, there are alumni mentors available who currently reside in Florida, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Kentucky, Arizona, and Wisconsin.

All mentors are John Marshall graduates who have volunteered to answer students’ questions, offer career-related advice, and help bridge the gap between the law school environment and the outside professional world.

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How does the program work?

John Marshall alumni who volunteer to mentor students are asked to fill out a profile form. All the mentor profiles are then inputted into a spreadsheet, so that students can search alums by practice area, name of employer, past employment, graduation year, etc.

Beginning Monday, October 10 through Friday, October 28, 2005, students can come into the Career Services Office and look through the Alumni Mentor binder to review all the mentor profiles. The number of students requested by each mentor is limited, so the earlier you stop in, the better.

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You’ve chosen a mentor. Now what?

Once you pick a mentor, you will be given his or her name and contact information. Then you will fill out a “Student Information Form” which will be faxed to your mentor right away. You are then responsible for initially contacting your mentor via telephone or email within 2 weeks of signing up, to introduce yourself and schedule your first meeting.

Before meeting with your mentor, spend some time thinking about what you hope to gain from this experience. It is up to you to ask the mentor for the information that you seek. Recognize that you have short and long term goals.

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Guidelines

Appropriate topics for discussion between mentees and mentors are issues of current concern to the profession, the mentor’s approach to ethical and professionalism dilemmas, career goals, types of legal practice, law practice management issues, and quality of life issues in law school and the practice of law.

The student is expected to initiate contact with the mentor within 14 days of selecting a mentor. Failure to initiate contact with your mentor within the 14-day period will result in your removal from the Mentor Program.

Remember that is can be challenging to accommodate schedules and it is the quality of the relationship, not the quantity of time spent that determines the success of the program. Students need to respect the time and limited availability of mentors. In some cases, the primary means of communication may be by email or telephone.

While mentors may be asked for guidance as to locations and types of practice, the Mentor Program is not meant to serve recruitment or placement needs.

Some possible mentor/mentee activities include:

• Meeting for lunch/coffee “Shadowing” your mentor for a day.
• Attending Chicago Bar Association meetings with your mentor.
• Communicating questions or thoughts via email.
• Attending court, depositions or client meetings.
• Mock interviews to help the student prepare for upcoming job interviews.
  
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Questions

If at any time, you have concerns, or a problem arises with your mentor, please contact Stacia Goldstein (6goldste@jmls.edu) or Sue Monette (6monette@jmls.edu) in the Career Services Office at 312-987-1402.

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