Why are mentors so important for new legal assistants?  

The value of mentorship cannot be understated. In any field, in any industry, the process of teaching newcomers how to properly complete assignments are essential for success.  

This is also the case for new legal assistants, whether they have experience or not, coming into a new job always takes certain adjustment and getting familiar with new dynamics.  

For a legal assistant that is just starting to understand their role, it’s key to have someone on their side guiding them and showing them what their job is about, what main tasks are prioritized, etc.  

But there are other less obvious (but even more important) reasons as to why this is so essential. Here are some of them:  

Developing networking skills  

When a mentee is learning from their mentor, they are not only learning the skills they’ve been taught, but also how to socialize by seeing their senior do their work and how they interact with other members in the law firm, they can pick up a ton of social knowledge about how to effectively communicate with their colleagues.  

Networking is one of the main skills any new legal assistant should develop and through mentorship they can do this while also learning from their superiors.  

It reduces rookie mistakes  

Errors are always to be expected when someone is starting a new job, however by having a mentor you can cut down significantly on those first few bumps in the road by watching and learning how they handle similar under-pressure situations.  

Mistakes are going to happen eventually regardless but reducing them also accelerates your learning curve and makes you even more of an asset for the firm you work for.  

Teaching goes both ways  

Obviously, the student is always learning from their teachers, but mentors also learn a lot from the experience of educating someone less experienced how to do a good job.  

It can also lead to reverse-mentoring, where the mentor rediscovers or learns new information while researching a new topic to teach the new member of the firm.  

Conclusion

It’s clear the benefits that mentorship provides, however some of its most important profitable elements can be ignored by most people, so it’s key to know not only the most obvious reason as to why seek mentorship as a new legal assistant, but also some of the least talked about, because they are even more valuable than the others!