This piece has been written by Tanvee Kanaujia (B.A., LL.B. Batch of 2019), Jyotsana Singh (B.A., LL.B. Batch of 2020) and Sumit Chatterjee (B.A., LL.B. Batch of 2022).
It is a truth universally acknowledged that law in practice is starkly different from law in theory. The reality of this truth hits like a splash of cold-water when young professionals hit the ground running.
In an age where knowledge is easily available in abundance, the right attitude and soft skills comprise the essential ingredients of exemplary performance in the professional sphere. However, developing the right attitude to learn, unlearn, and relearn, is a challenging task. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is not conducive. It is also impractical.
Mentorship is a necessary instrument which can help one learn not only the craft of the court or the tact of negotiation, but also the ability to persevere and improve as a professional. Unfortunately, with a rapidly growing legal community, and challenges including remote work, the workplace has become impersonal to an extent, and is unable to meaningfully integrate young professionals. Conversations with peers (across batches that have recently graduated) highlighted this much. A couple of deterrents which could stymie one’s ability to adapt to a professional environment also came to light in these conversations. These ranged from differential expectations based on one’s gender, to implicit exclusion from matters due to one’s demographic background; from impostor syndrome to disillusionment. Another key deterrent identified was the stigma associated with accepting one’s personal struggle of adapting to a professional space. Mentorship can be significant to address such issues.
One additional avenue where mentorship becomes crucial is for alumni opting to pursue alternative careers in policy, business administration and other fields. It is highly likely that recent graduates interested in pursuing such fields would want to reach out to and interact with similarly situated alumni, who pursued law but decided to carve their own niche in another field, and to learn from their experience. These graduates could benefit from the sharing of knowledge and experiences of others who have gone ahead and forged a career path which was one less trodden.
Admittedly, law school’s fabled alumni network, and its omnipresence in fields and places across the world, is often the solace which recent graduates hang on to in navigating through the rough terrains of early professional blues. The constantly growing alumni network, which has benefited from collaborative efforts with the University to make the network more cohesive and tight-knit, is often touted as one of the defining elements in law school’s continuing impact on its alumni even post graduation.
However, in the absence of a formalized structure, pre-empting and addressing issues, such as those illustrated above, becomes difficult. For this reason, we believe that the current avenues of alumni interaction, and the existence of a formal alumni directory (as is presently the case) fail to harness the enormous potential which law school’s alumni network has in shaping and guiding future careers in the law, and outside of the law. First, a formal alumni directory is not conducive to fostering interpersonal relationships, like a mentor-mentee relationship; and second, the lack of awareness and information surrounding alumni network models created or aided by law school directly impacts the increasing feeling of alienation at workplaces for recent graduates (where entrenched mentorship programs are not in place).
Before making our case for why an entrenched mentorship program could be institutionalized, a caveat. Our proposal for entrenched mentorship does not operate in a silo, or fail to recognise the varying degrees of mentorship already existing in traditional legal professions. For instance, a number of law firms provide a hierarchical mentorship model, with seniors often playing a dual role of being role models and mentors all at once. Similarly, in litigation circles, as well as in in-house roles, the presence of a senior to learn from is the pedagogical rite of passage which most recent graduates thrive off of, and ultimately fall back on as their biggest learning curve.
Despite the existence of such mentorship circles, the sense of unfamiliarity and distance still prevails. It is, after all, a new terrain for almost everyone navigating the space of a professional work setup for the first time. And it is to address these twin concerns that we propose the need for establishing an entrenched mentorship model - built on the foundations of law school’s robust alumni network.
What does an entrenched mentorship model look like? Essentially, the idea is to create an ecosystem which is built on congeniality and approachable mentors - who will guide recent graduates occupying similar spaces, or interested in following similar career trajectories. We believe that this will significantly accentuate the initial learning curve for recent graduates in traditional legal spaces, while providing further avenues and safe spaces for conversations around alt career options (something which is often muzzled for graduates of law).
In fine-tuning and curating our proposed model, however, we believe a dialogue is necessary. As a first step, we wish to hear from graduates who have recently joined the workforce to shed light on the ails that can potentially be remedied through an entrenched mentorship system. The idea of hearing from recent graduates is to broaden our own horizons in understanding the scope and depth of this identified plight, and to gauge the role that an entrenched mentorship model can play in providing a long-term and effective solution.
In an increasingly competitive environment, we believe professional guidance becomes as indispensable to a successful career as a sound legal acumen. We hope this project proves to be a step in the right direction.
We also wish to hear from our alumni community at large on their insights on identifying the benefactors of the proposed mentorship system, and to further develop the modalities of an entrenched mentorship system.
Do feel free to reach out to us with any thoughts, suggestions or ideas which you feel might be relevant to further develop this proposed model. We look forward to hearing from the alumni community!
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