A match made in mentorship
How Counsel to Counsel helped two attorneys build a meaningful friendship
Vanessa Sloat-Rogers and Adena Hatcher
After joining The Florida Bar’s Counsel to Counsel Mentoring Program last August, Vanessa Sloat-Rogers and Adena Hatcher were paired in October 2024. In just a few months, they’ve formed a genuine, supportive friendship.
“It was like, ‘where have you been all my life?’” said mentee Hatcher.
“I have been waiting for you!” responded mentor Sloat-Rogers, as they both laughed.
Sloat-Rogers, a litigation attorney serving as the manager of attorney professional development at Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners in Boca Raton, has been mentoring newer attorneys “for a long time.” The Bar’s Counsel to Counsel email convinced her to try volunteering as a mentor with The Florida Bar, and she says she’s glad she did.
Hatcher, admitted to the Bar in 2023 and currently working for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, had been seeking a mentor for over a year. Despite engaging in numerous voluntary bar-related activities, she had yet to find someone with whom she truly “connected.”
They both point to the short survey they filled out as part of the program’s intake process, which rates potential participants for compatibility, as the reason they were able to find each other.
“That test is spot on,” said Hatcher.
“It nailed it,” agreed Sloat-Rogers. “I don’t think I could have been matched with a better person than Adena,” she said.
They are alike in motivation, drive, thought processes, and work ethic, said Sloat-Rogers.
“I’m so grateful to have gone through this program because she doesn’t just motivate me professionally, but also personally,” said Hatcher. “We literally have a friendship out of this.”
Sloat-Rogers explained why mentorship is especially important to her. As a non-traditional new lawyer, coming into the profession after a break from college, she was older than most of her law school classmates. In her first job, she had been paired with a partner who was so busy with work that he didn’t have time to talk with or teach her. Fortunately, a senior attorney took her “under her wing,” as she put it, and the two remain friends today.
“That really made an impact on my life,” said Sloat-Rogers, and it is the reason she helps younger attorneys at her firm.
Sloat-Rogers said she joined Counsel to Counsel because she loves mentoring newer lawyers; and that love for mentoring, as well as her experience, is what makes Sloat-Rogers such a great mentor, says Hatcher. They agree the keys to their mentor-mentee friendship are consistency and openness.
They started by meeting weekly to cover the program’s milestones and found that applying the topics to their current work enriched their discussions and created a collaborative learning experience that feels equally beneficial to both.
The program is built on four milestones: Career Planning and Professional Development, Lawyer-Client Relationship, Lawyer-Bar Relationship, and Client Development and Community Involvement. Each milestone in the MentorcliQ app has a selection of worksheets with tasks and resources for the mentorship team to choose from.
“We enjoy each other’s company so much we did every single assignment in all those milestones,” said Hatcher. “We did more than we should have, but I wanted to get the most out of this experience, and I really did, having Vanessa as my mentor,” she said.
Now, they have progressed from regularly scheduled conversations to additionally jotting off an email or calling when one has something to “bounce off” the other.
Hatcher offered an example of a recent landlord-tenant dispute in which she was representing a tenant who was in arrears for rent and, despite reaching out multiple times, the opposing counsel was unwilling to discuss possible solutions.
“I felt defeated,” said Hatcher.
Dejected at what this meant for her client, she didn’t even want to celebrate her birthday. She discussed it with her mentor. Sloat-Rogers told Hatcher to be patient, reminding her that she had done all she could on behalf of her client.
“Then, one minute before the hearing, opposing counsel settled with me and it was an incredible deal that was in favor of my client,” said Hatcher.
The unexpectedly good outcome reinforced a crucial lesson in boundaries and expectations, which was especially important for Hatcher, who as a younger, new attorney can have a natural tendency at times to take on perhaps more than she should, putting her under undue stress, according to Sloat-Rogers.
“We’re attorneys; we’re not superheroes,” said Hatcher.
Sloat-Rogers says she sometimes feels like the mentee, in a good way.
“I learn things from her that I hadn’t thought about doing. It’s a give-and-take relationship,” said Sloat-Rogers. “Adena goes to conferences, and bar association meetings, and other meetings. The contacts that she makes and the things that she learns makes me realize that I need to work on my own professional development. Unless you hear what other people are doing, sometimes you completely forget.”
The fondness between the attorneys is charmingly lighthearted and sweet, and they exude respect and admiration for one another.
In early March, they met in person when Sloat-Rogers found herself traveling to Palm Beach for work. They say they will continue their mentor-mentee relationship after the nine-month program ends, that they have developed a lifelong friendship.
“I’m a better version of myself and it’s all because of this program,” said Hatcher.
According to Katie Jones, assistant director of the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism, 419 mentoring teams have been matched since the program was launched in 2023, and usage of the MentorcliQ app that participants use to report progress has almost doubled with the current cohort.
Registration for the next mentoring team cohort will open on August 1, and teams will be matched by mid-October for the start of the nine-month mentorship cycle.
For more information, visit the Counsel to Counsel Mentoring Program webpage.
