YLD test launches its new mentoring program
YLD test launches its new mentoring program
The Young Lawyers Division is testing a new mentoring program at two law schools and working to improve communications with members.
YLD President Sean Desmond told the Bar Board of Governors recently that the division has switched its newsletter from paper to electronic, and transmits it to all of the YLD’s 21,000 members.
The newsletter has a dedicated section in each edition that features one of its local bar affiliates and another section that highlights a young lawyer’s pro bono work. Each issue also includes an article of general interest to membership, such as the tax implications of starting a law practice.
Aside from the newsletter, Desmond said the section is working with the Bar’s Law Office Management Assistance Service to improve the division’s website and also present practice management issues.
The YLD is working with law schools at Stetson and the University of Miami on a new group mentoring program involving 10 students and 10 lawyers, Desmond said. Rather than pairing individual students and mentors, the program allows any of the students to contact any of the mentors.
The division hopes to expand the program to all of the state’s law schools by next year and then make it available for new Bar members, he said.
Another project has been improving the Practicing With Professionalism program that all new Bar members are required to take. Desmond said the program had featured an afternoon panel of judges discussing professionalism issues and now the YLD is adding a morning panel of young lawyers, moderated by an employee of the Bar’s Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism, to discuss issues of specific interest to new practitioners.
