Aug 30, 2024 ByJimAsh Senior Editor TopStories
A first of its kind mentoring program, Counsel to Counsel is designed to pair new lawyers with those who are more established in their careers. Technology-based, it’s administered through the MentorcliQ app, which matches lawyers based on their profiles.
Ashley Sybesma and Jason Berger have a gift for beginning lawyers that could offer an edge over competitors, a faster track to success, and a more satisfying career.
To claim it, say the chair and vice chair of the Mentoring New Lawyers Committee, recipients need only meet an October 4 deadline to register for “Counsel to Counsel.”
“We’re just starting the second class,” notes Sybesma, a senior associate with The Smith Law Firm in Key West. “Launching at this time of year has been a key component for us, because we want lawyers who are fresh off the Bar exam who can take advantage of this.”
A first of its kind mentoring program, Counsel to Counsel is designed to pair new lawyers with those who are more established in their careers. Technology-based, it’s administered through the MentorcliQ app, which matches lawyers based on their profiles.
Potential mentees are lawyers licensed with The Florida Bar for five or fewer years. Mentors are lawyers with five or more years of experience.
When attorneys sign up for Counsel to Counsel, they fill out a brief survey and the program provides participants compatibility ratings.
From there, the mentor or mentee can choose their top three options and the technology establishes the final match based on the responses. The program is nine months long, with four milestones and a practical experience requirement to guide their relationship.
Registration for the second class began August 1.
“Enrollment runs through October 4,” stressed Katie Jones, assistant director of the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism. “Participants will receive their matches and begin the program by October 10 or 11.”
Ashley Sybesma
Sybesma and Berger served on a predecessor committee that designed the program and both participated as mentors for the inaugural class. Both are highly active in the Bar and deeply committed to mentoring.
“I had some wonderful mentors throughout my career,” says Berger, a former prosecutor and founder of the Law Office of Jason D. Berger, P.A., in Stuart. “I believe in giving back.”
Berger notes that the program traces its roots to two recent Florida Bar presidents, beginning with President Mike Tanner, who launched a major Bar initiative to enhance professionalism.
Then President-elect Gary Lesser helmed Tanner’s professionalism initiative. When he succeeded Tanner the next year, Lesser determined that mentoring was a logical extension.
Lesser argued that a job market depressed by the pandemic and financial pressure to repay student loans were forcing too many beginning lawyers to launch solo practices. The trend is robbing beginning lawyers of access to more experienced colleagues who can serve as models of professionalism and career guides.
Berger wholeheartedly agrees.
Jason Berger
“When you meet a successful attorney, you can see that they are surrounded by successful attorneys, and surrounded by mentors that guide them professionally, ethically, and personally,” he said. “Mentoring and professionalism run hand in hand.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz underscored the nexus when he appeared at a reception for the first Counsel to Counsel graduates at the Bar’s Annual Convention in June.
Sybesma says she can usually tell by the overly combative tone of a demand letter that the author is a beginning lawyer or one who lacked a mentor.
“Some of them do come out with guns blazing, absolutely,” she laughs.
Sybesma, a 2005 graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, was admitted to the Bar in 2006.
“I am a commercial litigator, and I also do some immigration work, and my firm does Real Estate transactional work, estates and probate litigation.”
Nothing makes her happier than sharing the benefit of her years of experience, which she demonstrates through Bar service.
“I probably serve on more committees than I should,” she said. “But I really feel that as a lawyer, this is a profession that is a privilege and I have a duty to give back to my community.”
After helping design Counsel to Counsel, Sybesma was eager to see how it worked. She was more than pleased when she connected with her mentee.
“One of the really unique parts of the algorithm is that it’s based on personality. So, from our first conversation, it was like instantaneous that this was going to be a good match.”
The two had much in common.
“He was a young entrepreneurial lawyer in Miami, doing some immigration work and some family law work. And small firm, to the extent that I think his dad was his office manager.”
Sybesma was thrilled when he quickly asked for help on a real estate matter.
“I said, ‘man, I’ve been there. Let me tell you my thoughts, and how you can think about handling this, and as a new lawyer, something you may not be thinking about.’”
Berger, a 1998 UF Levin College of Law graduate, was a prosecutor for 11 years, eight of them as a supervising attorney guiding beginning lawyers.
“I was in charge of training attorneys to try cases, and training them to be professional, and ethical, and competent.”
He continued the trend in private practice, where his firm has internship programs.
Berger lists adoption, elder law, estate planning, family law, personal injury, and trusts and estates in his Bar profile.
Berger was especially pleased that his Counsel to Counsel match was a non-traditional mentee.
“He’s a solo practitioner in a second career. He’s not a 25- to 28-year-old new lawyer, he’s about 40 to 45,” Berger said. “So, he’s similar age wise, and likes. He wants to learn some litigation.”
Even better, Berger said, the mentee was a geographical match who shares the same interests.
“He’s local so we have the same judges, and the same attorneys, and the same local rules. From a personal standpoint, we both love sports.”
There was no need for virtual meetings, Berger said. They met for breakfast.
“He talked about the Miami Hurricanes and I talked about the Florida Gators, along with going over the milestones.”
There’s more proof that the MentorcliQ app was on target. The relationship continued after the program ended.
“We’re still meeting, so our train is still on the tracks.”
