Lessons from 2020’s Improvised New Associate Orientation
Autumn used to be the season for new associates to gather at their firm’s main offices, or in fancy offsite locations, to be initiated through an orientation or on-boarding program. These programs ranged from one day up to one week depending on the firm’s culture.
With the pandemic’s social distancing and travel warnings, however, the in-person orientation went up in smoke in 2020. Poof, it was gone — and law firms had to rethink how to orient the flow of new associates entering the legal profession. Law firms were pressed into adapting and creating training in formats they had never used before.
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Keeping the virtual audience interested and involved is one key lesson many firms have learned. Blank Rome’s Director of Attorney Professional Development, Joshua Troy, explains that his team prepped their presenters by walking them “through a ‘menu of interactivity’ ranging from breakout rooms to polling to prework, which allows us to ensure each session is engaging, effective, and rewarding.”
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Virtual mentoring
One area that has rallied in the virtual environment is mentoring initiatives.
Blank Rome’s Troy explains that the firm “amplified [its] traditional mentoring approach by creating small group mentoring circles by video with multiple mentor-mentee pairs.”
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“Lessons from 2020’s Improvised New Associate Orientation,” by Sharon Meit Abrahams was published in Reuters on October 19, 2021.