Created in 2013 to be a comprehensive, in-depth professional mentoring program, UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law’s Professional Mentoring Program serves as the first opportunity for each Bowen student to start working towards a desired career.
The crux of the program is the relationship between the student and the lawyer or judge assigned to the student as a mentor. Well before the first day of class, each admitted Bowen student notifies the law school of his or her two or three top law practice areas of interest, and the law school matches the student with a Little Rock attorney who practices in one of those areas to serve as the student’s mentor.
The students work with their mentors to develop career plans, revise their resumes, and design 11 hours of shadowing experiences that will help the students begin moving towards their career aspirations.
The students then complete their shadowing experiences, log them for review by their mentors, and author an in-depth paper regarding one of those experiences.
In addition, each Bowen first-year student performs five hours of pro bono work working alongside volunteer attorneys, providing free legal assistance to veterans, first responders, cancer patients, and others served by the law school’s extensive pro bono programs and collaborations.
