Illinois Supreme Court announces mentoring program for new attorneys in Cook County
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis announced Tuesday that the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is teaming up with Winston and Strawn, the Chicago Bar Association, the Cook County Bar Association, The John Marshall Law School, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and other legal organizations to begin a mentoring program for newly admitted lawyers in Cook County.
The announcement Tuesday continues a statewide initiative by Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride, the Supreme Court and the Commission on Professionalism that was launched in June 2011 to urge attorney groups, law schools and individual lawyers to take an active hand in ensuring that new attorneys get prac-tical professional guidance after law school.
The early years of legal practice are among the most challenging for most attorneys. Recent law school graduates generally receive limited practical and clinical experience while in law school, and the months leading up to their admission to the bar are spent in extensive preparation for the two-day bar exam, which consists of essay and multiple choice questions with no gauge of clinical or practical experience.
In such an environment, experienced attorney mentors can prove invaluable in helping recent bar admit-tees learn the actual practice of law, and get them a meaningful start in their legal careers as well as pro-mote principles that guide them toward professionalism.