December, 2010: Evaluations for the Mentor Training Pilot program held in September, 2010, are in and great! Over 90% of the participants said they would recommend the program to a colleague. Click here to see a summary of the evaulations. If you would like to know more about the training, click here. To learn when new trainings are scheduled, joing this site or send a request to info@cletn.com.

April 22, 2010: The Commission has submitted a petition to the Supreme Court to modify Supreme Court Rule 21, Section 4.07, to explicitly authorize the inclusion of mentoring as an approved CLE activity in Tennessee. The proposed amendment further authorizes the Commission to conduct training of mentors for accredited CLE mentoring. A draft of the regulation under consideration by the Commission to implement this program should the Court approve the proposed amendment to Rule 21 is included with the petition. Click here to read the Petition. Although there will likely be a formal comment process with the Court, please feel free to post individual or organizational comments in the comment thread on the petition below.






Since “reading for the law” was the primary way of gaining access to the profession, mentoring has been an important part of refining and transmitting a culture of engaged professionalism to novice attorneys. In recent years, however, this practice has become less prevalent and less powerful. It is less prevalent due to the pressures of the business aspects of law. Solo and small firm practitioners often have less time and opportunity for informal mentoring of novice lawyers. Those in large firms are also driven by economic goals and pressures in ways that may squeeze out intentional, thoughtful mentoring. As its prevalence has declined, so has its power, at least partly because the shared set of norms for engaged professionalism and civility have eroded under the same business pressures that have decreased the prevalence of outstanding mentoring. ...

(Click here to continue reading "Mentoring and Tennessee MCLE" which was approved for discussion by the Commission on April 21, 2009.)

Mentoring Programs in Other States

Georgia's Transition into Law Practice Program

"The Program is essentially an educational program that combines a Mentoring component with a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) component. The core of the Program is to match beginning lawyers, after admission to the Bar, with a mentor during their first year of practice. The purpose of the Program is to afford every beginning lawyer newly admitted to the State Bar of Georgia with meaningful access to an experienced lawyer equipped to teach the practical skills, seasoned judgment, and sensitivity to ethical and professionalism values necessary to practice law in a highly competent manner."

Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Program of the Supreme Court of Ohio

This has become a permanent program with the new lawyers admitted in November, 2008. This site includes a 100-page Mentoring Orientation Manual, a 41-page New Lawyer Orientation Manual, and a 2-hour video on the January, 2009 Mentor Orientation Session, plus many other resources.


South Carolina is just beginning its second pilot program. Like Georgia, this is a mandatory program for beginning lawyers. Lawyers may have individual mentors, and mentors may be from within the attorney's firm. Beginning lawyers can participate in group mentoring run by the South Carolina Bar if an individual mentor cannot be identified for them.

The University of South Carolina School of Law has the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism which includes links to mentoring programs around the country.