Mentoring Programs

We invite all alumni, regardless of your location, occupation, practice area, or age, to become involved with our mentoring programs. Your willingness to volunteer your time and knowledge will make a difference in the careers of our bright students and recent graduates!

Illinois Law Mentoring Program

New law students face an accelerated recruiting cycle, with many firms visiting campus in the fall semester of 1L year and making hiring decisions earlier than ever. Through the Illinois Law Mentoring Program, alumni can provide incoming students with insights in the following areas:

• Selecting a geographic area in which to practice;
• Selecting a practice area;
• Selecting clients they want to serve (e.g., people versus companies);
• Potential sources of connections and mentors (e.g., bar associations, networking groups);
• Advice on navigating the first year of law school or life in Champaign-Urbana.

Timeline

Alumni may register for the mentoring program beginning in July of each summer. Mentors will be asked to provide a brief bio, career profile, and contact information, and will then be added to our mentor database. The database will be shared with the students in late August, and they will be free to contact alumni who have backgrounds that best align with their career goals.

Registration information is typically shared with alumni via email and on our social media channels. For more information about the Illinois Law Mentoring Program, please contact the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development.

Illini Connect

Illini Connect is a network of alumni who are willing to be contacted by Illinois Law students who are seeking information or advice specific to the alumnus’s geographic location, practice area, or practice setting. Alumni will provide one-time or occasional advice to students to answer their particular questions and connect them with useful resources to help them navigate the hidden job market in a particular area of the legal profession or geographic location. A longer-term mentoring relationship may result from such interactions, but is not the primary focus of Illini Connect.

Contact information for alumni in Illini Connect will be held by the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development in their Symplicity system, which can only be accessed by Illinois Law students. Students can browse alumni in Illini Connect and will reach out to those that they are interested in speaking with and learning from.

To volunteer to be included as an alumni contact in the Illini Connect database, please contact the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development.

Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program

The Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program seeks to partner recent law school graduates in the state of Illinois with experienced in-state practitioners to promote professionalism, civility, and integrity in the legal profession. Mentors are required to participate in an orientation program and meet face-to-face with a recent graduate of the College of Law eight times during the year, at times and locations convenient to the participants. Mentors who participate in the program are eligible for six hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) professional responsibility credit, to be awarded in the year in which the mentoring occurs.

This program is sponsored by the College of Law and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (ISCCP).

Program Requirements

• Admitted to practice in Illinois for at least six years (mentors) or no more than two years (mentees)
• Registered on the Illinois ARDC Master Roll of Attorneys as active
• Never have been suspended or disbarred from the practice of law in any state or jurisdiction and have no formal disciplinary complaint pending (mentors)
• Practice law in Illinois or intend to practice law in Illinois (mentees)

For more information about the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program, visit the ISCCP mentoring program website.