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Since 2000, the ISBA Employee Benefits Section Council and the students enrolled in The John Marshall Law School Employee Benefits Graduate Program have participated in a mentorship program. The purpose of the program is twofold: to increase the practice of employee benefits law with qualified and professional attorneys and to promote involvement in the bar association committees relating to employee benefits law.
Based on interests, employee benefits attorneys (the mentors) from this ISBA Section Council and students (the protégés) are paired together at the beginning of each academic year.
The protégés are expected to attend at least 3 of the quarterly ISBA Employee Benefits Section Council meetings with their mentors; to assist mentors in their routine Section Council duties (e.g., publication of newsletters, legislative updates, case law updates); and to maintain informal contact with their mentors between meetings (e.g., phone calls, emails, lunch visits). Students who have participated in this mentorship program have co-authored articles with their mentors for the ISBA Employee Benefits newsletter and assisted with the legislative and case law update presentations at Section Council meetings. The ISBA Employee Benefits Section Council meetings are generally held on the 9th floor of the ISBA’s Chicago Office at 20 South Dearborn. Meetings begin in September and conclude with the May/June annual meeting in Lake Geneva.
Students interested in participating in this program should complete the attached Protégé Application and forward it to Ric Skweres at Lewis Overbeck & Furman LLP, 135 South LaSalle, Ste. 2300, Chicago, IL 60603. If you have any questions you may call or email Ric at 312.580.1250; email:rskweres@lewisoverbeck.com.
Practicing law without a mentor sometime in your career is like riding a bicycle without handlebars —you have momentum, but no direction.
Practicing law in the area of employee benefits and executive compensation is a very complex profession. You cant possibly know everything. However, that doesn’t mean that you’re not a competent lawyer. When you reach out for a mentor, it simply means that you’re willing to seek the resources to become the best employee benefits practitioner that you can be. Through the ISBA Employee Benefits Section Council Mentoring Program you can regularly meet and talk with a lawyer who will help you find answers to your questions, guide you, boost your confidence and ultimately help you make decisions that may affect your life and career for years to come.
HOW THE MENTORING PROGRAM WORKS
As a law student in the John Marshall Law School Employee Benefits LLM Program, you’ll be assigned a mentor from the ISBA Employee Benefits Section Council for a period of one year. Every effort will be made to match you with a mentor who has experience in areas of the law that you specify, by size of practice, special skills and abilities, or whatever is important to you. You and your mentor should decide how to structure the mentoring relationship as to how it will benefit you most.
PROTÉGÉ QUALIFICATIONS
- You must be a student in the Employee Benefits LLM Program at The John Marshall Law School
- You must sign a disclaimer and release agreeing not to sue your mentor, the Illinois Bar, or any related person or entity for the consideration of services rendered through the program.
- That’s it!
APPLYING FOR A MENTOR
- Application to Request a Mentor
- Protégé Disclaimer and Release
- Application to become a Mentor
The Mentoring Program is sponsored by the Employee Benefit Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association.
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