Best Law Mentors

WHAT THE BEST LAW MENTORS DO (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2028)

Harvard University Press: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/ 

Introduction to the Project

Our goal is to identify the most effective law mentors and supervisors in the United States, to synthesize the principles by which they guide and supervise their mentees, and to share these principles and stories with other lawyers who are committed to mentoring the next generation of lawyers. Mentorship in the ethical standards required by lawyers is particularly important in this moment.

Modeled on What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press 2013) by Michael Hunter Schwartz, Gerald F. Hess, and Sophie M. Sparrow, which itself was a follow-up study to Ken Bain’s wonderful What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard University Press 2004), we are undertaking an in-depth study of the personal qualities, habits of mind, communication and relationship skills and other characteristics of the best law mentors and supervisors in the United States. 

To identify exceptional mentors, we have adopted the same methodology that was used by Bain, Schwartz, Hess, and Sparrow; namely a qualitative methodology. We will solicit nominations, gather evidence of nominees’ excellence, pare the list to the most extraordinary law mentors, and then interview the nominees and the mentees who have worked with them. The goal is to complete our research over the next two years so that What the Best Law Mentors Do will be published by early Winter 2027.

In these pages, you will find a more detailed description of the project, a type-and-click form for submitting nominees, information about the mentoring resources that influenced this project, some examples of nominated mentors, and additional information about this project.

Description of the Project 

What the Best Legal Mentors Do will profile approximately 25 exceptional legal mentors who have been nominated by their mentees or other community members and selected for their outstanding impact in guiding other lawyers in the legal profession. The book will synthesize the strategies these mentors use to motivate, support, and inspire others, offering a range of mentorship models across a wide variety of practice types and generations. It will also identify key qualities and approaches that lawyers who want to mentor others can develop and implement.