The Maryland Alumni Mentor Program for 1Ls

The Alumni Mentor program partners first-year law students with alumni working in the legal profession (and non-legal professions).  An attorney-mentor is someone to whom the student can turn to for “real world” professional advice during the first year of law school.  While an attorney-mentor is not expected to be a potential employer, mentors are asked to provide professional advice and tips to help first-year law students prepare for careers after law school.  

Student Matching
Mentors and students are matched, as closely as practical, on the basis of criteria requested by the students.  Criteria may include:

  • Practice area
  • Student organization affiliation
  • Ethnicity
  • Geographic area

Once matches are made, students are expected to make the first contact with alumni. Students and their mentors are expected to participate in the program through May of the academic year, return phone calls and e-mails and honor pre-arranged meetings and activities, participate in School of Law sponsored Mentor Program activities, and notify the CDO if they are unable to fulfill any of their commitments.

First-year students interested in the program can
contact the CDO
for more information and fill out the program application.

Alumni Mentors
Serving as an alumni mentor is one of the best ways alumni support and can give back to first-year students.  Mentoring does require a time commitment, but that commitment can be as much or as little as each person’s schedule permits.  The time period is generally during the school year—from October through May.  Each mentor is asked to complete a minimum of four "interactions" with your student mentee during the course of the year.  Examples of possible interactions include:

Suggested Interactions:

  1. Take the student to lunch or dinner or for coffee.
  2. Invite your mentee to an event at your work place or a local bar event.
  3. Contact your mentee via email or telephone to discuss your area of practice, share opinions about your field of law or work environment or any other law-related topic of interest to your mentee.
  4. Critique your mentee’s resume.
  5. Invite the student to visit your office to “shadow” your activities for part of the day.
  6. Bring the student along to observe court proceedings, a deposition or a closing.
  7. Conduct a mock job interview with your mentee.
  8. Respond to the mentee’s job search related questions via email or telephone.
  9. Introduce the student to colleagues who are working in fields outside your areas of expertise.

Alumni interested in the program can contact the CDO for more information and register here: Alumni Mentor Program Registration.


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500 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-1786 PHONE: (410) 706-7214 FAX: (410) 706-4045 / TDD: (410) 706-7714

Copyright © 2013, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. All Rights Reserved