Mentorship Event at OBA Aims to Replicate the Past, Address Gap Left by Hybrid, Remote Work

In an interview with Law Times, Tom Curry highlighted how hybrid and remote work has reduced opportunities for organic, in person mentorship in the legal profession. To help bridge this gap, he is delighted to chair the OBA’s program, Tales from the Courtroom: Mentorship through Storytelling, aimed at replicating the informal mentorship that used to take place in the courthouse hallways, lawyers’ lounges, robing rooms, and dining rooms. The program will include guest speakers who will share stories about their mentors, who influenced their careers, mistakes they’ve made, and challenges they’ve faced.

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“It was just the course of things. A lawyer would go to court. She would have to use the robing room to change into her court attire. She would meet other lawyers there,"

“At lunch breaks, they would have lunch together in the dining room at Osgoode Hall or in the lounges at the courthouse. And in those moments, people would meet and renew acquaintances and tell stories.”

Now, as traffic in these shared spaces becomes sparser, “we just don't run into other lawyers in the way that I've described,” Curry says. “The new reality of the efficiency of virtual hearings is that there are fewer occasions when lawyers can see other people in person in the profession, and therefore fewer opportunities for them to learn.”

“That was a constant feature of my years at the bar – meeting people in the robing room and in the dining room and in the lawyers’ lounge and learning from them about their experiences,” Curry says. “Who are you in front of today? What's that judge like? How did that go? What worked in this case, and what worked in that case?”