Recently, one of my close mentors – Neil – passed away. While I have known this person for about four years, he had made a significant impact on my life – not because he was a family member or a personal friend, but because he was someone without whom I would not be the lawyer I am today.
I would like to dedicate this article to a crucial and sometimes unspoken component of lawyering and the legal community: mentorship. The concept of mentorship is something that is recorded as early as the Ancient Greek poet Homer’s Odyssey, where Mentor, an old friend and companion of Odysseus, takes care of Odysseus’ son while the hero leaves to fight the Trojan War.[1] While Odysseus is away, Mentor takes care of his son, teaches and guides him to succeed as a man. It is from Mentor that we obtain the term “mentorship”, or the guidance of a wise adviser or a friend.[2]
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