During your first two years with us, you will have your very own personal mentor, i.e., an experienced lawyer with a budget! The two of you will have the time and funds to explore your city, go to a game, have a dinner out with some other folks from the Firm, go out for a beer or glass of wine, and have long conversations about all the things you’re doing wrong. And right.  Your mentor will also offer suggestions for ways to make the best of your associate years and continue to grow professionally.

It may sound trite, but it is in fact true that one of the best ways to learn is observation. Our side-by-side training program allows you to spend 50 hours each year, as part of your chargeable hours, shadowing more experienced lawyers in their daily practice, encompassing such opportunities as hearings, arbitrations, closings, client meetings, witness preparation sessions, and trials.

Call us cutting edge, but we actually allow our practice groups to interact with one another and you may find your interests changing as you are exposed to different areas of law. At Quarles & Brady LLP, you have the freedom to change practice groups and develop your practices to reflect your particular interests and strengths.

We Love Training. Most Q&B practice groups offer formal training programs for lawyers in the group.  The format and frequency of the training varies (e.g., the training may occur during the group's regular meetings, as separate seminars offered to all lawyers, or as training sessions targeted to new associates) but you will not lack for training as a Q&B associate. Many training opportunities (such as the monthly Business Law Training Sessions) are open to lawyers in all practice groups.

Our litigation associates will benefit from our collaboration with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). For years, our litigation associates have participated in in-house litigation skills workshops focusing on important practice skills such as direct and cross-examination and negotiation. These two-day workshops are co-taught by NITA and Q&B lawyers and provide an excellent opportunity for hands-on skills development. Caution: homework alert. But worth it.

In addition to the programs above, a firmwide training program is offered each year for all interested attorneys. Past programs include advanced legal writing, editing and feedback skills and public speaking. A firmwide ethics program is offered every two years too!

Don’t think mentoring stops after two years.

In addition to our formal mentoring program, we encourage and support informal mentoring. For example, our partner compensation system rewards partners for certain accomplishments in various categories including mentoring and training. We provide training for partners and senior associates in mentoring skills (e.g., how to give feedback to associates and edit their work) to facilitate informal mentoring at all levels.  Every year our Star Mentor Program allows associates from each of our offices to nominate partners for Star Mentor awards.  Many of the nominees do not have a formal mentoring relationship with the associates nominating them.  Star mentors receive fun prizes and lots of attention, and Star Mentor Awards ceremonies held each January provide a perfect excuse for a post-holiday party.  It speaks volumes regarding how we feel about mentoring that associates chose to nominate 70 of our partners for Star Mentor Awards this year; many of those partners received multiple nominations.  The message conveyed by our Star Mentoring Program is that because we take mentoring seriously, good mentors deserve to be honored.  The message conveyed by this year's avalanche of nominations is that the message is being heard.

Quarles & Brady's Mentoring Program was recently featured in a Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCAA) article.  Please click here to view the article.