Gen Y Attorneys Want Mentors, Right?

March 13, 2012 at 2:45 pm · Filed under Career Resources

This morning, I read an interesting Above The Law post on the rise of social media in the practice of law and how Gen Y attorneys are too caught up in the technology craze instead of focusing on traditional methods of lawyering (I came across this post on Flipboard on my iPad, of course).

Here’s a snippet:

While younger generations have always looked at their elders as “stupid,” and not worthy of listening to, it has never been as much a part of the legal profession as it is now. The Gen Y cheerleading squad of lawyers and their marketers believe there actually is a “revolution” in the legal profession and that if those who have come before don’t get with it and move their practices to the iPad, they (we) will go the way of the dinosaur. . . .

While many Gen Y lawyers see the use for mentors, there is little room for the thought from the worst of Gen Y that they could learn something over a cup of coffee or an intelligent email discourse with someone that’s been practicing law (and still practices) longer than four minutes.

And so they continue to wonder why the few clients that call them for legal representation after seeing them “on the first page of Google” don’t seem to have any money but “really like your website.” . . .

I believe their mentors, those they turn to for advice, those they respect, are the webmasters, the SEO hacks, the marketers –- not lawyers, not those who came before them. When your practice is a website, an iPad, some videos, and a price list, why would you want to listen to someone with a bad website, no iPad, no videos, who still markets “organically” – through doing good work and developing relationships with real people? . . .

Futures are built, they are earned, and they are created through hard work. I don’t care what year it is or what new technology or social media site is out, your future will never be something you can purchase from someone else.

Attorney Brian Tannebaum (who practices in my beautiful and sunny hometown of MIA!) makes some good points about the relevance of social media and technology in how we build law practices and a strong client base. I agree that a solid, traditional foundation is the real key to success in our industry. Sure, I think technology can be a way to attract some clients and build a certain level of expertise — but you have to take your efforts offline to be a real player.

However, I (a “Gen Y” attorney) and other newbie attorneys like me do want mentors (and sponsors), not marketers! We do want mentors who will tell us “where they’ve been, where they’ve failed, and . . . how they became who they are.”

There were two takeaways for me from Tannebaum’s piece on how to snag a well-respected attorney as a mentor: