An Appeal to Embrace Purposeful Mentorship

Writing in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Hans Sanders tells the story of Cris Hassold of New College Florida.¹ A story that in so many ways captures the best of what the university can provide in a developing culture where campus life feels decadent and disconnected.

In it, we find a professor dedicated to the development of students. A woman who served as their intellectual guide over informal dinners, where she challenged them to think across a range of topics spanning from gender studies to the techniques of famous painters. It was a setting full of lofty ideas surrounded by “an apocalyptic jungle of ferns and shrubs,” and an interior stacked with cans of food, muffin tins, and papers strewn across working furniture. A setting befitting of Hassold, who stirred the mind and perplexed the sight as she provided her students the seeds for original thought and an opportunity to clean that chaos vicariously through the disorder of her home. For those who found their way into her inner circle, writes Sanders, found her and the intensity of their shared experience “a singular force of good in their lives.”

As the article points out, Hassold was a bit of a hoarder. And with any hoarder comes the habit of not letting go. And, perhaps also the habits of attachment and remembrance, which she passed on to her students as they remembered her life and then remembered her generosity anew upon receiving a major gift when she died as a last form of gratitude that she could deliver to those who made her life meaningful.

The Duty of Mentorship

 As I read this story, I was reminded of a question lingering in the back of my mind as it relates to my work in law student ministries: what does faithful presence look like in professional graduate work such as law school? Since my profession is law, I will focus on this particular profession by addressing the question: What does it take to regain our sense for what the legal ethicists, David Hoffman, once described as “our pure and honorable profession”? And it is “our” profession after all—for those of us who have invested our lives inside the walls of legal institutions and thereafter entered the legal profession in hopes of maximizing that training toward the service of the law. It is an awesome profession—privileged no doubt but also invested in the obligation of taking that privilege and turning it to good use. And not only to advance the common good, but also to prioritize the pursuit of truth, regardless of the direction it takes us.

As William J. Stuntz succinctly wrote, “law . . . is about truth.”² And here is one truth: local communities require a fealty from the lawyer that the lawyer might not intend to give in his first year of property law. But that is not for them to decide! For the “fundamental purpose of any political system,” writes William S. Ellis, “is the organization of power in such a manner as to attain certain objectives.”³ And, as lawyers, we are privileged to be uniquely placed in a system of organized power whereby our objectives must be driven by the concomitant desire for the advancement of justice and peace. “The lawyer is expected,” writes Ellis, “more than any other citizen except possibly the business man and the financier, to participate in the political arena and in public life.”⁴ This requires sacrifice—not only the sacrifice of due diligence and competent representation, but also the function of “watchman”⁵ in search of communities of need and the requisite character to move when that need presents itself. And here is one need: mentorship.

The Need for Mentorship

In two reflective studies on the 2014 and 2021 “Survey of Law Student Well Being,” professors Jerome M. Organ, David B. Jaffe, and Katherine M. Bender have discovered an alarming trend among third-year law students—a refusal to help underclassmen. The research suggests that third-year students consistently report a higher likelihood of doing less to help first-year students with various forms of addiction, substance abuse, or mental health concerns.⁶

In the 2021 report, the authors note a positive trend showing that less students are likely to tell their classmates to do nothing in seeking the help they need; however, “the likelihood of taking no action when learning of a classmate’s substance use challenge increased from the first year to the third year of law school (19% to 25% to 28%), as did the likelihood of taking no action when learning of a classmate’s mental health challenge (16.4% to 19.5% to 21.6%), a pattern similar to what was shown in 2014.”⁷

When I asked Jerome Organ about these trends, he noted an important aspect to all this: that students nearing graduation are growing less attentive or less responsible to their peers. With this trajectory, it is no surprise that students become lawyers averse to service, thus contributing to a culture that perpetuates self-interest. In order for legal education to produce a more “pure and honorable profession,” law schools must reverse this trend by doing a better job in creating a culture of care.

The Framework for Mentorship

Toward this end, a recent book provides an important primer on mentorship and a reminder to law students that their accomplishments have not been solely the product of their own doing. Writing in Who Believed in You?, authors Diana Powell McCormick and David McCormick lay out several pillars for leadership by telling the stories of successful men and women who can trace their success to various mentors. At the very start of the book, the authors note the importance of trust in developing not only leaders who run institutions well but also who run good institutions.⁸ This inevitably requires what the authors call transformative mentorship—a cyclical process that embeds at the microlevels of the individual and requires of them the same pour of investment into others once the initial investment yields fruit. “[A] transformative mentor,” write the authors, “spends time with a mentee, instincts, performance, and character are shaped and enlarged. If done well, the emerging leader learns to live and lead with more competence and integrity. A new, wise leader is born.”⁹

This process of mentorship is inextricably connected to three important objectives: building better selves, producing social capital, and compounding positive effects on society.¹⁰ It is a fundamental shift that shapes self-interest toward a balancing of competing needs. Individuals are contracted toward their immediate aims and toward the needs of others as an overflow of gratitude—not unlike the richness of Christ’s pronouncement in Luke 7:47 when reflecting on the faith of a sinful woman: “he who is forgiven little, loves little.” This change leads the individual to become more effective at work and more responsive to the needs of others, thus generating trust—achieving the first pillar.

The second pillar is based on developing character. The authors note how transformative mentors guide the course of a person’s life and shape that person’s worldview toward a disposition for honesty, fairness, and integrity.¹¹ This inevitably connects to the pillar of trust, as good character allows individuals to serve well through the fruits of good stewardship. Honesty undergirds a mentee’s assessment of situational realities and the capacity for advancing interpersonal sincerity. Fairness provides a rubric for a dignified and responsive commitment to the needs of neighbors. And integrity provides a fearless dedication “to see that the whole Jericho Road . . . be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.”¹²

With trust and character comes a third pillar: commitment. Both mentor and mentee must commit to the process and be prepared to learn along the way.¹³ Not only does the mentee learn from the mentor, but also the mentor is prepared to learn a new perspective from a younger generation.¹⁴ Importantly, this means both mentor and mentee must count the cost of the relationship and dedicate themselves to taking the necessary steps for improvement. It is an embodiment of Luke 14:28 in the professional sense: “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” For Christians, this idea of commitment should be nothing new since investing in others is at the core of discipleship.

The final pillar to this process is confidence. The mentor must build confidence in the mentee, helping them find their voice and embrace their renewed identities. As the authors note, this also requires the mentor to encourage mentees to undertake new and difficult challenges, even at the risk of failure.¹⁵ This once again comports with the spirit of James 1 as the letter beckons believers to embrace the utility of trials, knowing that the “testing of your faith produces perseverance,” which then produces maturity and integrity. Stated succinctly in the book, “[t]ransformative mentoring is concerned with the development of the whole person. It teaches us how to be present for the people who needs us most. The best leaders understand the necessity of kindness, of benefitting other people’s lives, and of considering the world around us.”¹⁶

Conclusion

In his 2012 invocation to the students at North Carolina Central University School of Law, Professor Kevin Lee reminded his audience that the legal profession can never escape its history and tradition. Its ancient roots and its pedigree are embedded in the soil of every nation. While law schools themselves are relatively new institutions,¹⁷ lawmaking goes as far back as the Book of Genesis, when God spoke the first law into existence: “You shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”¹⁸ And ever since our first parents broke that rule, humanity has struggled to make sense of the difference between good and evil, turning instead to wise and civil leaders to declare the difference through various forms of fiat and custom.

Lee tells the incoming class that as “future lawyers and leaders, [they] have a special responsibility to uphold the integrity and vitality of our legal system. This requires not only technical proficiency, but also wisdom, creativity, and a deep commitment to justice and the common good.”¹⁹ Just like the law is rooted in history, the life of a lawyer is embedded in community. It is a responsibility undergirded by the pursuit of progressive excellence: a journey of endless exploration into the precincts of right and wrong.

In order to cultivate this special task, students should practice the habits of mentorship early by investing in the development of their peers and then carrying those habits through graduation as identity markers for the restoration of the legal profession as a model for good. As Hassold sought to shape her home as a space for “focused darkness,” upperclassmen can shape their law schools by being lamps providing “light to all in the house.”²⁰

1. Hank Sanders, “A Professor’s Final Gift to Her Students: Her Life Savings,” New York Times, May 11, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/cris-hassold-professor-new-college-will.html.
2. William J. Stuntz, “Christian Legal Theory,” Harvard Law Review no. 116 (2003), 1708, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=368600.
3. William S. Ellis, “The Christian Lawyer as a Public Servant,” Vanderbilt Law Review no. 10 (1957), 918, https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4249&context=vlr.
4. Ellis, “The Christian Lawyer as a Public Servant,” 917.
5. See Ezekiel 3:17-19.
6. Jerome M. Organ, David B. Jaffe and Katherine M. Bender, “Suffering in Silence: The Survey of Law Student Well-Being and the Reluctance of Law Students to Seek Help for Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns,” 66 Journal of Legal Education no. 66 (Autumn 2016), 143-44, https://jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1370&context=home; David Jaffe, Katherine M. Bender and Jerome Organ, “‘It’ s Okay to Not Be Okay’: The 2021 Survey of Law Student Well-Being,” 60 University of Louisville Law Review no. 60 (2021), 475-78, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4127297.
7. Organ, Jaffe and Bender, “It’ s Okay to Not Be Okay,” 476.
8. Diana Powell McCormick & David McCormick, Who Believed in You? (HarperCollins Leadership, 2025), 15. While I focus here only on this one book, an excellent set of questions on navigating how to serve people well comes from John Maxwell. See John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 (HarperCollins Leadership, 2018), 145-63.
9. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 17.
10. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 15.
11. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 33, 45.
12. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam,” in A Call to Conscience, eds. Clayborne Carson and Kris Shephard (Grand Central Publishing, 2001), 158.
13. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 71.
14. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 174.
15. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 106.
16. McCormick and McCormick, Who Believed in You?, 172.
17. See John Witte, Jr., “Introduction,” in Christianity and Law: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 9-15; Harold Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Harvard University Press, 1983), 49-164.
18. Genesis 2:17.
19. Kevin P. Lee, “Law School Invocation Comments 2012,” (2024), 15, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4780470.
20. Matthew 5:14-16.