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CLICK HERE TO ACCESS APPLICATION FOR ATTORNEY VOLUNTEERS

We chair the Law Students Activity Committee for the Young Lawyers Division of the North Carolina Bar Association, which oversees the NCBA's mentoring program.  We are in need of attorney volunteers who are willing to serve as mentors to law students who want to practice law in North Carolina.

Most of these students are currently attending North Carolina law schools (Campbell, Charlotte, Duke, Elon, N.C. Central, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest); however some students may attend out-of-state law schools, but are looking to practice in N.C. after law school.

Here is a more thorough description of the Mentoring Program:

The purpose of the law student mentor program is to establish a mentoring relationship between volunteer attorneys and law students who desire to practice law in North Carolina. By providing students with contact with lawyers and judges, the program will give students the opportunity to address issues of current concern to the profession and to learn what they need to know to practice law which they may not learn in the academic setting.

The program provides law students with exposure to practicing attorneys and judges to better assure that, as graduates, they will be equipped to deal with the realities of the practice of law and to understand ethics and professionalism more fully.

Mentors and students are free to structure their relationship to meet the needs of both parties. The hope is that the students and their mentors may meet occasionally and speak by phone, in order to give that student the type of perspective on the practice of law that might not be learned in law school. 

In the final analysis, however, it is the quality of the relationship, not the quantity of time spent that determines the success of the mentoring relationship. Questions about how firms operate, expectations of young associates, quality of life, balancing the needs of family with career, and other more informal questions are likely to form the basis of the typical mentoring relations; however, each relationship will necessarily develop in accordance with the interests of the parties.

While the mentor may be asked to offer guidance as to the locations and types of practices a student may be considering, the Mentoring Program is not meant to serve recruitment or placement needs and neither the attorney nor the student should enter the relationship with that goal. 

The mentoring program is designed to benefit both the student and the attorney. With the informal advice of a mentor, students will hopefully enter the working world a bit more knowledgeable about what it means to practice law in North Carolina. The lawyer will gain an enjoyable opportunity to get involved in NCBA activities, find out what is happening at the law schools, and give a little back to the community.

This program has been a great success and we would like to continue this tradition.  We would like to match as many attorney mentors to law student mentees as we can before the December holidays.

Please respond as soon as possible by completing the attached mentor application and returning it to either:

Kelly Jones, Esq.
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC
150 Fayetteville Street Mall, Suite 2100
Post Office Box 831
Raleigh, N.C. 27602
Direct Dial: (919)755-2151
Fax: (919)755-6765
email: kjones@wcsr.com
 
OR
 
Kenneth R. Harris, Jr.
Attorney At Law
P.O. Box 2337
Matthews, N.C. 28106
(704) 756-5743
kenharrisjr@mac.com
 
Thank you! Your interest and assistance is greatly appreciated!
Kelly & Ken