Legal Mentoring For Solo Lawyer Professional Growth

Discover How One On One Legal Mentoring Can Help Sole Practitioner Lawyers

Having a paid trusted advisor lawyer coach as a mentor matters as sole practitioner.

I remember in my early days of practising law when mentoring happened in the pub after a bad day at the office.

There were quite a few of these early on!

Bad days that is.

The legal mentoring I got there was well meaning, empathetic and sufficiently executed by the older and wiser around me, to get me back to work the next day, and survive a few more weeks until the next “mentoring” session.

In those days, any formal sense of legal mentoring and/ or lawyer coaching for legal professionals (especially junior lawyers!) were almost foreign concepts, rarely undertaken at the scale we see today.

Seeking professional help or career development advice from a professional like a lawyer coach was seen as a last resort, even when things looked like they were going decidedly south and pear-shaped.

There were no such things as law firm mentoring programs of any scale.

If it was done, it was on the quiet, often seen as a sign of weakness or even something to be ashamed of. You certainly did not tell your managing partner or HR you were getting it.

The Early Days Of Legal Profession Mentoring

The culture of self-development for lawyers was different then.

It was about resilience and stiff upper lip then.

It was more focused on surviving as a lawyer, than developing yourself as a more rounded legal professional as it is today.

Again neither mentoring nor legal career coaching was nothing like the accepted and mainstream thing it is today.

Lawyer career pathways to success were pretty defined and almost singular then, and were all pretty much attuned to climbing the ladder towards the elusive golden chalice of partnership.

The guiding mantra was pretty hard core, and yet simple - “Work really hard, bring in the fees and one day, some of this might also be yours.”

As I said above, lawyer career advice was often sourced from ad-hoc discussions with other legal profession colleagues and friends, well-meaning but, more often than not, hit or miss.

The “mentoring” received was no doubt sincere in its intention, yet unpredictable in its execution and effectiveness, leaving much to chance.

What worked for one lawyer may not for another. Why would it?

Success therefore was almost an unpredictable and accidental mix of hard work, experience, trial and error, hit and miss and, for more than a few, a bit of luck.

The Evolution Of Lawyer Mentoring

Thankfully, times have changed for the better.

We have seen how mentoring benefits lawyers more and more over the years.

Mentoring nowadays is about having a professional sounding board you can keep going back to, one who gives you confidence for what you are trying to achieve, as well as as the clarity about a pathway towards it, so that the transition from A to B is not overwhelming for you and indeed the journey makes you a better person and lawyer.

It took a lot of time and quite frankly pretty much a generational shift in thinking for the professionalisation of mentoring to occur.

This generational shift has not only changed how we approach lawyer professional development, but also how we discuss and prioritise mental health, work-life balance, alternative career development pathways and our ultimate career satisfaction.

Seeking advice as a solo lawyer or sole practitioner legal professional is no longer seen as a sign of weakness, but rather a strategic move towards a more holistic well rounded long-term success. Indeed you need professional help to start a law practice in Australia nowadays as it is a competitive and evolving marketplace.

The legal profession itself now more readily recognises the myriad of, often unprecedented challenges we face, many of which impact us in ways we could never have expected nor predicted.

This is also coupled with a myriad of opportunities in law and legal practice that never previously existed, and goes well beyond any expectations of our initial university education and vocational training.

This shift in perception has seen solo solicitors being more proactive in identifying and tackling issues head-on, sooner than later.

Ad hoc well meaning solo lawyer mentoring on its own is no longer the solution for the above.

Curious how professional mentoring may work for you as a solo lawyer?

Book a free initial 15 minute consultation with Paul Ippolito today - we have mentoring programs for sole legal practitioner lawyers that stretch from 3 to 12 months in time.

Paul Ippolito - Legal Mentor For Solo Lawyers

“Paul was my mentor during 2019 as part of the Law Society NSW mentoring program for women. It was the first time that I had embarked on anything like this and Paul put me at ease and made the process productive, informative, relaxed and enjoyable. Paul provided constructive suggestions in relation to relatively 'small' actions, which were therefore easily achieved. Achieving many small goals elevated my confidence both at work and in general. Paul is able to understand that raising confidence enables the achievement of much larger goals. Paul is very committed in his role as mentor. He travelled into town for meetings and took time out of an overseas holiday to read through a lengthy application and provide advice on my accompanying resume. He is knowledgeable in his role as mentor as well as the law in general and the legal industry.”