Quality, consistency and an understanding of a company’s business goals are critical building blocks for effective relationships between in-house legal departments and their outside counsel. At Quarles, we’ve found that joint mentorship programs offer an innovative way to cement those bonds from the ground up, by sharing knowledge while also developing young talent.

With tighter budgets, corporate law departments and their general counsel want to get more value from their law firms. A recent Thomson Reuters survey looked at the importance GCs place on outside counsel who are close to their business and more commercially minded, as well as how these factors weigh into why they recommend their best performing firms.

At the same time, law firms need to strike the right balance of experience when staffing client teams. Developing early-career associates fresh out of law school can be a challenge, especially when it comes to giving them meaningful work to stretch and develop their skills.

As a law firm president and veteran general counsel, we’ve experienced these challenges directly — from both sides. We’ve also found a solution in joint firm-client mentorship programs, which offer career development for young lawyers and strengthen relationships with clients by adding value. Whether it’s creative secondment programs that give law-firm associates a firsthand view of the client’s business or sharing pro bono opportunities with in-house lawyers, joint mentorship programs are an opportunity to strengthen the ties between the law firm and in-house teams.

Benefits of joint mentorship

Our careers speak to the power of strong mentorship. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the many mentors who took an interest in us and helped foster our leadership skills.

And in our roles as law firm and in-house leaders, we’ve also witnessed the strong business case for talent development programs. Done properly, joint law firm-client mentorship can offer a range of benefits, including:

•        Business acumen. Early-career attorneys, especially those without work experience prior to law school, may have legal talent but a limited understanding of the business considerations surrounding legal issues. That makes it tough for them to offer practical, strategic guidance. In-house mentorship programs, secondments or even closer relationships with a company’s sales or operational teams can help young lawyers understand the big picture and produce better work for the client.
•       Work product. For associates, client mentorship provides an opportunity to stand out. With close supervision from both client teams and law firm leaders, less experienced lawyers can take on bigger projects and develop a track record of work that can help their career advancement down the line.
•      Client relationships. When in-house and outside counsel know each other not just as professionals but as people, the work is stronger and more enjoyable. In our experience, associates who understand the client’s business are more likely to stay on the client team for years, yielding greater efficiency and client satisfaction.

Shared solutions

The benefits flow both ways. One of the best things about collaborative mentorship efforts between law firms and clients is that programs can be tailored to their unique relationship, shared goals and distinct cultures. Properly designed, these programs should help fill the mentorship gaps within an organization while playing to its strengths — allowing associates to get a better understanding of the client’s business while also exposing in-house attorneys to new opportunities.

For example, pro bono work can offer a substantial boost to job satisfaction and well-being. But an in-house law department might not have the resources to offer a dedicated pro bono program — while their outside counsel does. At Quarles, we’ve been able to offer pro bono opportunities to our clients’ in-house legal teams so their attorneys can give back to their communities, ultimately strengthening the connection between our teams as we collaborate on meaningful work.

Through our partnership with The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, we also offer an annual training session for attorneys interested in supporting TVC’s mission to provide assistance to unrepresented veterans or their family members who have filed appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Each year, we invite many of our clients to join the training.

Similarly, law departments may not have the resources or infrastructure to offer legal networking events or host speakers. As a general practice at Quarles, we try to invite early-career in-house attorneys or even our clients’ MBA students to firm events. It’s a simple way to foster goodwill and help client-side talent grow their careers. This goes the other way, too: inviting law firm associates to company events can help them better understand the client’s business or industry.

For law firms and clients who are all-in on mentorship, adopting a formal program can help institutionalize these efforts — and yield impressive benefits. A great example is U.S. Bank’s Spotlight on Talent program, which offers professional and leadership development to early-career, high-potential associates at their outside counsel firms (including many women and diverse attorneys). Participants enjoy networking, goal setting and leadership training with U.S. Bank’s general counsel, chief diversity officer and other bank attorneys.

Quarles has been fortunate enough to have two of our associates participate, and we’ve seen how they grew as professionals and leaders while coming away with a better understanding of U.S. Bank’s operations and objectives.

Regardless of the specific mentorship program, we’ve found there’s one element crucial for success: leadership investment. If firm leaders, company executives and senior attorneys aren’t taking a day-to-day interest in mentees’ progress, these programs will be short-lived and ineffective. True mentorship means being involved with the people you are mentoring, keeping an eye on their advancement, and being genuinely invested in their future. Ultimately, it’s all about relationships.