The Aurora Bar Association has been invited to join
The Arapahoe County Bar Association Mentorship Program—
Fostering Professional Development through
Mentoring and Personal Relationships
About the ACBA’s Professional Mentoring Program:
Founded in 2014, the Arapahoe County Bar Association’s Professional Mentoring Program is grounded in the belief that mentorship should mutually benefit both the mentee and mentor. The goal of the program is to advance professionalism in the legal community by matching ABA and ACBA members seeking to advance their professional development through a personal relationship with a more experienced attorney who is willing to provide insight on issues affecting professionalism in the practice of law. In these one-on-one relationships, mentors provide support, guidance, and professional advice. In order to foster these relationships, mentors and mentees are asked to hold a minimum of four meetings or attend four activities (including either an ABA event or an ACBA event) together in a single calendar year.
The program is not meant to provide an opportunity for attorneys to obtain legal advice on the cases they are handling from a more experienced attorney. Nor does the mentor-mentee relationship create a confidential relationship that would protect the mentor and mentee’s communications regarding the cases they are handling. Rather, the Professional Mentoring Program offers each mentor and mentee the opportunity to promote civility, public service, and aspirational values essential to the survival of the profession through a flexible program that can adjust to meet the needs of each pairing. The program encourages new attorneys, as well as veteran attorneys, to seek support from the program and gain a greater sense of professionalism while being enveloped in an adversarial occupation.
Mentors and mentees will be recognized at ABA and ACBA functions and the success of the program will be monitored through quarterly contacts made by the ACBA Mentorship Committee to mentors and mentees to obtain feedback regarding strengths and weaknesses of the program and their mentoring relationships.
Any ABA member or ACBA member may contact the bar office to participate as a mentor or mentee in the ACBA Professional Mentoring Program. The ACBA Mentorship Committee will conduct a short interview with each mentor or mentee to clarify the interest, expectations, and needs of the prospective mentor or mentee so that the Committee may create a match that is likely to flourish to its goal. Mentors will be invited to attend a training session where the details of the mentoring expectations will be presented, questions will be answered, examples of mentoring will be shared, and resources will be distributed.
Your membership in either the ABA or the ACBA will provide you with access to a program that will enrich your professional development. We encourage you to join the ACBA and the Professional Mentoring Program today.
Please contact the Arapahoe County Bar Association for more information or if you would like to become a mentor or mentee, and let them know you are from the Aurora Bar Association.
E-mail: [email protected] or Phone: (303) 797-2227