Counsel to Counsel mentoring program registrations are brisk
Priscilla Pacheco, Ave Maria Law Class of ’22, was waiting for her Florida Bar swearing in ceremony to begin when she heard about “Counsel to Counsel.”
The mentoring program uses an online platform to match beginning lawyers with experienced ones, and tracks participants as they complete a series of “milestones.”
Raised in the Ft. Myers area by parents who were both in law enforcement, Pacheco was launching her career in a strange city where she had yet to make friends.
Counsel to Counsel seemed a perfect fit.
“I like that it’s very structured,” she said. “I look for that in most things I do.”
Pacheco is one of more than 300 Florida Bar members who registered since the program went live in June. By July 21, Pacheco was getting excited.
“We just got the email this morning that they are finally going to start making the matches, so we’ll see how it goes,” she said.
Pacheco works in Broward County in a two-lawyer firm that focuses on employment law. It’s not what she envisioned when she applied to law school.
“Funny enough, I had no intention of going private at all,” she said. “I wanted to go prosecutor, but like on a federal level, human trafficking, things like that.”
Then she learned about the crushing caseloads that come with being a prosecutor or public defender. Pacheco was worried she wouldn’t be able to “give 100%” to every case.
“Every person deserves an opportunity to feel like they matter, and not just a file on someone’s desk,” she said.
Pacheco feels confident that she knows the law. She wants a more experienced lawyer to offer a “different perspective.”
“With the position I’m at now, my boss teaches me the business side of things,” she said. “Really, it’s just about finding confidence, someone who can say I was where you are, it does get better, just having that support is the biggest thing for me.”
Immediate past President Gary Lesser formed a “Special Committee on Mentoring New Lawyers” last year and recruited Young Lawyers Division former Presidents Katherine Hurst Miller and Zackary Zuroweste to head it.
He directed the committee to create a mentoring program for lawyers with three or less years of experience and who work in firms of three or fewer lawyers. Mentors must have at least five years of experience.
The result was a first-of-its-kind program powered by a MentorcliQ app that uses profiles to match mentors and mentees.
When attorneys sign up, they fill out a brief survey and the program provides ratings that gauge the compatibility of mentors and mentees.
“From there, the mentor or mentee can choose their top three options, and the technology establishes the final match based on those responses,” according to a Bar promotion.
The program is nine months long, “with four milestones and a practical experience requirement to guide mentors and mentees in their relationship.”
Mentoring is needed now more than ever, Lesser said, because law school graduates, burdened with record debt and facing a more competitive job market, are under intense pressure to launch a solo practice right out of law school.
Lesser is also concerned that the post-pandemic explosion in remote court proceedings has robbed beginning lawyers of the opportunity to watch veterans perform.
“Mentorship is essential to the professional development of lawyers, especially now when many hearings and depositions are virtual, and you’re not going to meet lawyers in the hallway, and you’re not going to be sitting in the back of the courtroom and see how lawyers handle themselves in front of a judge,” Lesser told a General Assembly audience at the Annual Convention in Boca Raton last month.
He might as well have been talking to Pacheco. She went into lockdown halfway through her first year of law school, and “didn’t see anyone in person” until her third year.
“So, especially this group of people just being sworn in, we haven’t had an opportunity to meet or see anyone. Every hearing I’ve done, (I did moot court in school,) is always over a screen, it’s on the computer.”
Lesser wasn’t the only veteran lawyer worried about the next generation.
Hilary Creary
“I’ve seen so many young lawyers who need someone tell them when they’re not getting it just quite right,” said Board of Governors member Hilary Creary of Ft. Lauderdale. “Particularly those who are out there going it alone, they need someone to guide them through the growing pains, the professional issues, and just their everyday life issues.”
Creary was so impressed with the concept of Counsel to Counsel she quickly registered, despite her busy schedule.
In addition to her practice and Board of Governors responsibilities, Creary is active in local and voluntary bar associations and has mentees across the state.
Creary wishes her law school had taught her more about growing a small business.
“When I graduated law school, I had no idea that it was a business. For me it was just about, ‘let me start practicing law,’ because that’s what I’m passionate about.”
Creary feels especially obligated to help beginning lawyers appreciate the value of bar service, and the sense of fulfillment it can bring to a challenging profession.
“It’s not just about putting your head down and doing the work, it’s about forming relationships that matter,” she said.
Yasha Osby, a Florida A&M University Law grad admitted to the Bar in 2020, registered with Counsel to Counsel to close a gap in her existing mentorship circle.
“I currently have mentors for different things, but I wanted to engage with a local attorney who is in my same practice area,” she said. “I consider myself to be very independent, but I’m a first-generation attorney and I’m navigating something new, and I realized I needed someone to guide me.”
Osby first felt the calling to be a lawyer when she was 6 and watched “Matlock” reruns with her grandfather.
She attended a pre-law magnet program in high school and worked as a juvenile probation officer for six years to help pay for college and law school.
Since becoming an attorney, she has explored criminal and family law, but decided they weren’t for her. Now she is practicing real estate law and needs help with the transition.
“Also, I want to learn more about growing and expanding my practice, the business side. I think it’s very important to get some guidance with that,” she said.
John D. Agnew
John Agnew of Ft. Myers volunteered for Counsel to Counsel “because, one, I believe in mentoring.”
Agnew benefitted from mentors and is determined to pay it forward.
“My mentor has a super professional approach to everything,” he said. “The first lesson was, the sandbox is a lot smaller than you think it is, don’t go scorched Earth on everything. People with respect always take the high road.”
After watching his colleagues develop the concept, Agnew wanted a closer look so he could promote it, and improve it, if necessary.
“You see things on paper, and they look good, but in my opinion, if you want to be a good advocate, you should participate, so you can give good feedback,” he said.
