Any tips for effective use of a good mentor? I am a second year and I have a great partner mentor who has been either directly or indirectly responsible for getting me most of my work. We have relatively informal meetings every so often, and sometimes I struggle to come up with things to talk about. Usually I’ll have one or two things in mind like “I want to do more of X” or ask for some specific feedback on something I worked on, but when it ends there...

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Ask what the me tor wishes s/he knew as a young associate but didn’t.
Tips on building a network.
Can you ask to be invited to join mentor’s networking lunches/events? Maybe mentor’s network introduces you to the junior people in their org?
Drafting, timekeeping, organizing tips.

You are right - there is tremendous value in this relationship. Good for you for recognizing that.

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I feel like I must be leaving some value on the table. We have business development plans and things we’re supposed to work on every year, but especially this year I’ve really just been trying to keep my head above water and focus on getting my hours in, and I haven’t had much opportunity to think about developing my practice. Any tips?

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It's probably not a good idea to ask your mentor for tips on bring in business, as your mentor likely did so during a completely different economic market. I would have said the same prior to covid-19, as we've been in a saturated buyer's market for a number of years, while your mentor likely built his or her practice during a seller's market, where you can make all the marketing and sales mistakes in the world and still be successful. You don't have that luxury anymore.

Your best bet is to offer clever strategies about how YOU can help grow your partner's practice (something very few partners dislike). Brainstorm with him or her about problems created by the coronavirus with which your partner can specifically help companies.

Let's say you're in Labor & Employment. Come up with a list together of industries that have been ravaged by the lockdown, but are inevitably going to come back - like Radiology (where millions of women have held off on having mammograms).

Brainstorm about the problems or opportunities with which your partner can help companies in that industry. For example, in a contracted market, many of those companies may be laying off numerous individuals that have specialized skills. Your partner can offer advice to such a company on hiring back specialized talent six months to a year before the "up market" returns because, 6 months later, there will be a hiring frenzy for scarce talent where companies will be forced to pay 30 to 40% higher salaries then they were previously.

Your job, as an associate, will be to qualify leads for your partner. That involves networking virtually with execs in the Radiology industry, floating out your hiring strategy hypothesis, and seeing whether or not they have a "tell me more" response. There are many easy ways to network in this fashion over e-mail and phone.

For those execs who do want to hear more, it's easy for you to ask, "Would it make sense for me to introduce you to Partner X, who has helped a number of similarly situated companies plan for this inevitability?" If you've done things correctly, you won't have to convince someone to meet with your partner; he or she will be anxious to do so.

*ABAV - Always be adding value

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