
What qualities should a mentor have? How do sponsors elevate careers? When (and where) should you look for a mentor or a sponsor? We asked four lawyers from Jones Day to share everything they know about making the most of these crucial working relationships.
*The views and opinions set forth herein are the personal views or opinions of the author(s); they do not necessarily reflect views or opinions of the law firm with which they are associated.
Chambers Associate: What do you feel is the difference between mentorship and sponsorship? How have mentorship and sponsorship been important to your progression as an attorney?
Shireen Matthews, investigations & white-collar defense partner: Mentors help you grow, while sponsors help you advance. I have been fortunate to have a handful of mentors to whom I have turned at different times in my career to seek out advice, encouragement, and guidance. I’ve also been lucky to have one of my mentors also serve as my sponsor. After working with me for several years, she leveraged her own influence to recommend me for a promotion and for significantly larger case and client responsibilities. Without those opportunities to prove myself, I would not have had the portfolio I needed to make partner at Jones Day.
Jenny Plagman, labor & employment partner: Mentorship is focused more on advice and feedback and guidance, how to make your mentee a better lawyer, and how to develop their own opportunities and career. Sponsorship is more focused on actively helping an associate make connections, network, and give them work. Both have been critical in my progression from first year associate to partner, as my mentors have guided me through the profession and taught me the “dos and don’ts.” My sponsors have given me opportunities to show the skills that my mentor helped develop.
Stephen Scott, business & tort litigation associate: The difference between mentorship and sponsorship is the depth of the relationship between two individuals. A mentor knows who you are. Mentors provide guidance to support your needs for and unrelated to your professional development. A sponsor knows who you can become. Sponsors provide an investment of their time, attention, and resources to support your needs related to professional development. Both mentors and sponsors have allowed me to achieve my dreams in becoming an attorney. I have people who see me and will not give up on me. I have been successful in the profession from their support.
Mentorship
CA: Mentorship initiatives have been around for quite some time: how have they evolved to become more effective?
SM: While there is no replacement for face-to-face interactions between mentors and mentees, advances in technology have made virtual mentorship a reality. This allows mentors and mentees to connect regardless of geographic location and expands access to mentors from diverse practice groups and backgrounds.
Formalized mentorship programs at law firms also are important. While organic mentorship relationships often are the most enduring, everyone needs a place to start. A formal mentorship program in a particular office or practice group makes it easier to set expectations, track progress, and ensure targeted support for new lawyers.
JP: Over the years I’ve noticed more of an emphasis on mentorship initiatives, with a focus on people in your practice area. It’s been less focused on partnering someone of the same race/gender, which has been refreshing and feels like you are at times able to make better connections that are based on more than your identity.
Carine Artigas, financial markets associate: I think mentorship initiatives have already evolved significantly, shifting from informal and one-size-fits-all approach to more structured, inclusive, and multifaceted approaches that better reflect the diversity amongst attorneys. I think we are seeing and will see more structured mentorship programs with formal matching processes, specific goals, timelines, and clear expectations for both mentors and mentees. I think these advancements will allow more attorneys, especially diverse ones, to have access to effective mentorship opportunities.
SS: Mentorship initiatives have increasingly focused on the importance of facilitating an authentic relationship. Anecdotally, mentorship initiatives previously paired a mentor and mentee together and deferred to them to develop their relationship. Mentees had difficulties understanding how to develop and make the most of their relationship. Today, mentorship initiatives are now providing forums for mentors and mentees to learn how to advance their relationship, such as panels discussing prior successful mentor-mentee relationships.
CA: What factors do you consider important when seeking out a mentor?
SM: Relevant Experience: When I look for a mentor at work, I look for personal accomplishments that align with my own goals: someone who is where I’d like to be someday.
Aligned Goals/Values:I also look for someone whose values, ethics, and work style align with my own. When I had young kids, I looked for someone who worked hard, but who prioritized family in the midst of a busy work life.
Compatible Communications Style: Effective mentorship relies on clear and effective communication. A good mentor will offer constructive feedback and push their mentee to operate outside their comfort zone.
Willingness to Invest Time: Mentorship takes time. Often it takes a lot of time over many years. For me, it was important to determine whether my potential mentor was available and dedicated to offering consistent guidance and check-ins.
CA: Mentors come in different forms and purposes, and because of that, I think it’s important to bear in mind that you may need several mentors, each of whom serve a distinct purpose or role in your career development. The mentors you may need at the beginning of your career may not be the same mentors you will need at other stages of your career. That said, I think it’s important to focus on what you need from a mentor at a given time. The answer to this question will help you narrow down and better target effective mentors.
SS: Authenticity, genuineness, and generosity are important factors for me. Each reflect my baseline view of how a mentor helps you. Mentors offer up their time to be available for you when you are in need without expecting anything in return.
CA: What are some of the traits you would use to describe an effective mentor – specifically an effective mentor for an attorney who belongs to an underrepresented group or groups?
SM: Active Listener: An effective mentor is someone who gives their full attention to the mentee’s needs, challenges, and goals.
Empathy: An effective mentor is someone who can understand the mentee’s perspective and experiences, and can provide tailored guidance, making the mentee feel supported and understood.
Approachability and Openness: A good mentor makes their mentee feel at ease to share their true and authentic self.
JP: An effective mentor has to be able to listen and have the ability to perceive a situation from another person’s point of view. This is especially critical when mentoring an attorney who belongs to an underrepresented group, as that experience has to be considered when giving advice.
CA: Approachability, openness and receptiveness are key traits that I would use to describe an effective mentor for an attorney of an underrepresented group. It is important to find someone who is also nurturing that makes you feel heard and seen.
SS: Many underrepresented groups in the profession carry an invisible weight to effectively navigate—and excel through—the complexities of the profession for themselves and others, including their families and those who look like them. An effective mentor allows a mentee to lessen the stress of that weight upon them. First, an effective mentor is patient. An effective mentor creates a safe space where a mentee can let their guard down and learn from trials and errors. Second, an effective mentor is an active listener. An effective mentor listens attentively to their mentee in what they say (or do not) and how they say it in order to respond properly. Third, an effective mentor is emotionally intelligent. An effective mentor is empathetic and mindful of how certain word choices, topics, or events may affect their mentee differently than themselves.
CA: What advice would you give to those from underrepresented groups on finding informal mentors early on in their career?
SM: Leverage Affinity Groups and Bar Associations: Find mentors who share your values and understand your challenges. It is not always necessary to find a mentor from the same background, having someone who understands the obstacles faced by underrepresented attorneys can be invaluable.
Leverage Online and Virtual Mentorship When Needed: Even in big law firms, there might not be someone in your particular office who is the perfect mentor for you. If you find someone at the firm who you connect with, reach out and set up virtual chats or check-ins. These meetings can be just as valuable to you, even if the mentor sits across the country instead of down the hall. For example, in Jones Day’s South Asian Affinity Group, we pair associates with South Asian partners across the globe for monthly chai chats to allow associates access to mentors in various practice groups and locations.
JP: Get out and meet people. Get to know the people at your firm and figure out who you have things in common with or who you vibe with. Don’t necessarily look for someone that looks like you, but you can and should turn to those people for advice in figuring out office personalities and who would best suit your needs.
CA: I would say focus on finding people in your network, whether home, work or otherwise, who make you feel good about yourself and who appear to be genuinely interested in your success. Don’t be afraid to take the time to get to know your colleagues and be a bit vulnerable. If you don’t open up and start building relationships, you may lose out on great mentorship opportunities.
CA: What information, skills or advice have you sought to get out of your mentor relationships, and have you been successful in doing so? How have you approached your mentor relationships to get the most out of them?
SM: My most successful mentoring relationships have had a few things in common: (1) I have been intentional about creating them; and (2) I have been proactive in nurturing them. Some of my favorite questions for my mentors are:
- How can I improve? Do you have feedback or constructive criticism for me in any area?
- What do you know now that you wish you would have known earlier in your career?
- How did you land your biggest case/client?
JP: How to handle the various personalities at the top of my group, and how to move through the firm in the way that will position me in the best light, give me the best opportunities, and develop my skills as a lawyer. Sometimes, it just comes down to how to deal with a difficult personality or get the attention of someone who can advance my career. I think I’ve been pretty successful, as I have multiple mentors who I am close with and can turn to for advice even now that I’m partner. I’ve approached my mentorships openly and honestly with my heart on my sleeve. I’ve been candid about my concerns, my struggles, and areas of weakness.
CA: My most sought after skill in the mentorship context has been how to become the most substantively proficient corporate lawyer that I could be. I believe I have been incredibly successful at seeking and receiving advice on how to deepen my substantive knowledge. I sought (and still seek) out my colleagues at Jones Day and others who I view as exuding the skills I want to improve/develop and why I think I have had such success in this area.
SS: As a first-generation college graduate and lawyer, I recognize that my knowledge about the profession is limited. I know what I know. I also don’t know what I don’t know. I ask my mentors very direct questions, but I also ask my mentors to share with me any insight that I should know. My mentors share their insight, so I may be empowered with the knowledge I need to succeed.
CA: In what ways did you find mentorship to be a particularly useful model to promote early career progression?
SM: Guidance on Career Path and Goal Setting: I struggled early in my career to know what path within the law was the best course for me. I also had a hard time knowing how to set achievable goals. My mentors helped me because they could see the forest, not just the proverbial trees. They knew what areas were going to be sustainable, what new, cutting-edge practice areas were about to explode, and how to pair my natural strengths with my interests. Given their experience, they were able to help set benchmarks that ensured I was on track, and offer me tailored advice that I used to accelerate my progression.
Skill Development: A good mentor can identify gaps in skills and provide feedback on what to work on to fill those gaps.
Building Confidence: Knowing that someone higher-up was thinking about my career trajectory gave me a long-lens and boosted my self-confidence.
JP: When you have someone to speak with about your career and insecurities, you are able to face those questions and issues head on and early on, so that you can improve your work and grow as a lawyer.
CA: Early in one’s legal career, the learning curve is very steep. Mentorship can help pave the way by making the transition not so daunting, and it may actually ease the burden of the steepness of the learning curve. Mentors can do this by passing along helpful knowledge and being available to answer questions and provide guidance when a young attorney might not otherwise feel comfortable reaching out to someone. Both on a substantive but also on a (firm) cultural level, to have someone or several people to guide you along the way is truly invaluable. Jones Day lays the groundwork for this by strategically pairing young attorneys with mentors who have similar backgrounds, interests and/or practice areas.
SS: Mentorship was how I discovered the possibilities available to me, including Big Law. I held firm to my dream of becoming a lawyer since I was young. I did not comprehend how it would happen or whether I would remain in my home state of West Virginia to see it come true. My Leadership Council on Legal Diversity mentor helped me see how I could achieve this dream. He significantly shaped my early trajectory into the profession after law school.
CA: What results has the firm seen from mentorship efforts?
SM: Our mentorship efforts at Jones Day have yielded huge dividends over the years because a structured mentorship program signals to junior lawyers from their first day at the firm that we are thinking about their long-term future at Jones Day. New associates are immediately integrated into case teams and affinity groups. We train them, we invest in them, and we develop their leadership qualities early. Our former managing partner once said, “You can never have too many leaders.” That statement has stuck with me, because leadership is something that must be developed over time. At Jones Day, we have had great success in teaching our young lawyers how to take initiative, communicate effectively, and lead teams of their peers early in their career. Mentors contribute to these efforts by: (1) taking their mentees to client pitch meetings, to oral arguments, and to depositions; (2) providing real and constructive feedback; and (3) having senior leaders invested (on a weekly or monthly basis) in the future leaders of the firm.
JP: It has seen more engaged associates and associates who care about their work product and their career progression. When you have someone taking the time to teach you how to operate and what to consider, you are more thoughtful and invested in the work.
SS: The firm has created a culture of support across offices from mentorship efforts. Partners mentor associates as much as associates mentor other associates. In fact, support staff members mentor each other and also the associates as well. Everyone recognizes that their title does not matter. Each person is invested in the longevity of their colleague and is willing to do whatever they can to help out.
Sponsorship
CA: What factors have you found to be the most important in finding a good sponsor?
SM: Demonstrate Your Value: Sponsors invest in people they believe will reflect well on them, so to attract a sponsor, it is important to demonstrate that you are high-performing, reliable, and talented. You must build a track record of successes, and that does not happen overnight. So, it was important for me to find someone who was willing to give me opportunities and increased responsibility over time. That way, I could show consistency and prove myself not just once, but over and over. No one is perfect, so it is important to have a sponsor who will give you the reps you need to succeed.
Find Someone Who Advocates for Others: It was important for me to identify leaders who consistently advocated for others and were willing to give credit and praise to team members who helped push certain projects forward. Those were the people who I could be sure would do the same for me, if and when I deserved it.
JP: Someone who is willing to devote the time to making sure they can get you good opportunities, and someone who has opportunities to give or connections to help you find those opportunities.
CA: Singlehandedly, engagement. The more engaged you are with your colleagues, law school friends and clients, the more they get to know you on a professional level. It keeps you top of mind, but it also provides potential sponsors with substantive knowledge of your strengths that they in turn can (and want to) promote on your behalf.
SS: In my view, a sponsor finds you. You do not find a sponsor. A sponsor has either witnessed or heard of the quality of your skills. At that point, a sponsor invests into your continued success whether you are in the room or not. A sponsor will leverage their relationships and their influence to support you however they can.
CA: At what point in your career did you look for a sponsor (or are you thinking about looking for a sponsor)? If you already have a sponsor, do you have tips for diverse attorneys on how to secure a sponsor? If you don’t already have a sponsor, what is your plan or process for securing a sponsor?
SM: At Jones Day, there is one lawyer who leads each client relationship, and many more lawyers who lead individual matters for a large corporate client. Once I started working on repeat projects for a client, I sought to build a relationship with the Client Services Lawyer(s) within Jones Day for that client. First, I worked to show my value on a particular matter, but eventually I worked to show the CSL and the client contact that I knew that client’s business and was able to think strategically about their goals across matters. Once that happened, I sought out sponsorship and asked for more and more responsibility.
JP: It wasn’t something I had considered when I was young; it just fell into my lap. I was lucky enough to have multiple people who wanted to see me succeed and were able to provide me with opportunities to do so. To secure a sponsor, you have to be open to meet new people and also be willing to do the hard work and whatever is asked of you. People are more likely to want to sponsor you if they think you are all-in, care about your work, and want to succeed. And the only way to make it known that is how you operate is to meet people, be open, and do good work.
CA: About four or five years into my career, I realized that I needed more than just mentorship – I needed another person to help be my voice. I think finding a sponsor can very much be an organic process, but similar to my view of mentorship, I think strategic analysis and planning are key. What is it that you are seeking in a sponsor? Is there anyone in your existing network that you could see fitting the role of sponsor in your career development? Is there anyone in your network that already has a sponsorship relationship that you could see yourself in? Sometimes someone else’s sponsor may also be a good fit as your sponsor.
CA: What are some of the traits you would use to describe an effective sponsor – specifically an effective sponsor for a diverse attorney as they look to climb the ranks to partnership?
SM: Sponsorship must be intentional. It does not happen by chance. It is a relationship built on trust. The sponsor must be secure in their own abilities and relationship with the client(s). If that foundation is there, the sponsor will have sufficient confidence to recommend others for key projects and responsibilities for that particular client. When looking for a sponsor, a junior lawyer needs to be vocal and unequivocal about their career ambitions. Sponsors want to know that if they recommend someone, that person is prepared to go the distance.
JP: An effective sponsor has the diligence to stay on you and continue to keep you in mind for projects or opportunities. Ideally, the sponsor also has connections with various people in and out of your group so they can connect you with other attorneys of the same underrepresented group, but also connect you with other attorneys to diversify your portfolio.
SS: An effective sponsor is someone who will take a chance on an attorney regardless of the results. Assessing risks of certain legal issues is a part of our responsibilities as attorneys. Risk tolerance may control a certain outcome for a client. The same may be true for a sponsor on taking a chance with an attorney. However, the calculus is not the same for an effective sponsor who is secure in the fact that the benefits of investing in an attorney’s success outweigh any risks related to their failures.
CA: Once at the partnership level, do sponsors exist to help diverse attorneys on business development efforts?
SM: I’m a big believer in the idea that many lawyers at Jones Day could do an outstanding job for a client on a particular project. It is important that the people we put forward to clients as “the best and the brightest” are diverse, both in terms of backgrounds and in terms of perspective/approach. Visibility is important—clients can’t hire someone who they never see. Sponsors can be extremely helpful in making sure our pitch teams and case teams represent the full talent of the firm by including our diverse lawyers.
CA: Absolutely. I believe sponsors and mentors alike exist at all stages of one’s career. I have witnessed diverse partners mentor and sponsor other rising diverse attorneys by introducing them to their clients and other networks and helping them have their voices heard. Sometimes, all you need is some support to get your foot in the door or break the ice, so to speak, of business development, and that’s where I think a diverse partner/sponsor can be key. It sends the message to the diverse attorney that if they (the sponsor) can do, I can do it, too.
CA: How can sponsors use their skills and participate in other DE&I initiatives at the firm, like affinity groups and wellbeing efforts?
SM: While it is not necessary for a sponsor to look like her protégé, it is sure inspiring as a woman of color to look up and see examples of leaders in the firm who look like me. When sponsors participate in mentorship programs, when they attend affinity group meetings, when they tell their story and share their background, they can inspire young leaders in unimaginable ways. When a junior lawyer knows that a key leader in the firm cares about well-being, work/life balance, and fair representation for lawyers of color, that matters. It seeps into the culture of the firm. All of a sudden for those junior lawyers, partnership seems achievable, rather than a far-off dream.
JP: Sponsors can partner with various affinity groups to develop client events that provide diverse associates with the opportunity to have more client-facing engagements.
SS: Sponsors can encourage their colleagues to get involved in DE&I initiatives. Increasing the number of people who are willing to participate in affinity group and wellbeing efforts shows junior lawyers that their needs are a priority. Presence matters to junior lawyers’ feelings of belonging and collaterally a firm’s retention of talent.
The Future
CA: How do you think mentorship and sponsorship relationships/initiatives will evolve in the future to better ensure the retention and promotion of diverse attorneys?
SM: One unintended silver-lining of the global pandemic is that it forced us to form virtual connections. We should continue to harness that power and connect mentors with mentees in different geographic locations, if there is something else that draws them together. Gone are the days when your mentor must work down the hall. Technology has many draw-backs, but it does allow us to connect in new ways. And we should use it, not as a replacement for the face-to-face, but as a tool to bring us together even when we are not physically close.
JP: I hope they continue on the path of taking into account diversity while not focusing solely on diversity. Diversity of viewpoint and experience is also key, and in this day and age I think it’s critical that mentors and sponsors not all be part of your diverse group so you can experience a range of advice and viewpoints.
CA: Traditional mentorship/sponsorship models focused on a senior/junior model often in a top-down relationship. Modern mentorship and sponsorship initiatives increasingly focus on DE&I, including at Jones Day, where we offer participation in a variety of different DE&I groups and events.
SS: These relationships and initiatives will evolve to reflect increased representation of diverse attorneys as mentors, sponsors, and contributors (or creators) of these initiatives. As more diverse attorneys rise from the ranks in the profession, these same attorneys can influence the structure, support, and resources needed, which are likely the same things they needed but did not have.