Everyone needs a mentor: Dante had Virgil, Edmund Hillary had a Nepalese Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay, and I had Don, two years my senior in the Justice Department’s Civil Division. Three thousand miles from home, in my first job following a clerkship, Don took me under his wing and gave me a primer on the people I’d be working with. He also gave me a formula he said would help me find my place in any organization: (1) in your first year, learn how to do your job; (2) in your second year, do the best job you can do; (3) in your third year, do the job that only you can do.

A good mentor can help with that first step and help you learn how to do the job. Our firm assigns associates to act as mentors, people who, like my friend Don, have a few years’ experience, but remember what it feels like to be a fresh face in a crowd of strangers. A good mentor, be it an associate or a partner, can acclimate a new attorney to the personalities of the firm: the guy in the corner office who seems to growl at everyone, but is really a pussy cat; the partner who gives you back drafts covered with so many edits it looks like it was put through a shredder, but applies the same heavy hand to the most senior attorney’s work; the trick for getting feedback from quiet partners and finding out what they really think about your draft.

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