Elizabeth Felt Wakeman and Ryan P. Farrell will participate this year in the McHenry County Bar Association’s “Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program.”
The program is a partnership between the MCBA and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.
Mentees must complete the program within their first three years of practice. To participate, mentors must have been admitted in Illinois to practice law for six years.
They cannot participate if any formal disciplinary complaints are pending against them or if they have ever been suspended or disbarred in any jurisdiction.
Mentors and mentees who complete a comprehensive, yearlong, structured mentoring program may earn their six Continuing Legal Education credits in professional responsibility, the minimum required in a two-year reporting period. CLE credits are allowed only if the mentoring plan is preapproved by the Commission on Professionalism.
Programs require an orientation, an agreement, at least eight face-to-face meetings, and the completion of the action items in the mentoring plan.
Mentors and mentees must complete an action item in professionalism, legal ethics, civility, diversity and inclusion, and wellness, mental health, and addiction.
The program aims to help new lawyers develop the needed judgment and practical skills to practice law competently and ethically. For more information about the program, contact Margaret Bengtson at the MCBA.
For more information about Liz Wakeman and Ryan Farrell, view their full biographies.