- Discuss the types of social or office behaviors that could be perceived as detrimental for a new lawyer's career, both with colleagues inside and outside of the New lawyer's office.
- If mentoring in-house, discuss the office culture with regard to decision-making and the new lawyer's authority to do so.
2D. How to Involve Clients in Their Case
The following points are intended to facilitate a discussion about the responsibilities of the client and the lawyer in decision-making and the best ways to involve a client in their case. See Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2.
- Discuss the ethical importance and necessity of involving clients in decision-making in their cases.
- Provide examples of the types of decisions in the mentor's practice in which s/he involves the client, including among other things the way, in which the client is involved, the reasons for involving the client in those instances, and the reasons for not involving the client in certain decisions which the Mentor makes.
- Discuss the difficulty in knowing what instructions are given (or not given) by a client and some traps that a lawyer (particularly in the new lawyer's practice area) can fall into regarding identifying the client instructions.
- Share best practices that the mentor has adopted in his/her practice to document client instructions for his/her files, including confirming in writing to the client the instructions which were given and the steps which were or were not taken.