Call for Stories about Mentors

I am currently writing a law review comment on the status of women at big law firms. I am particularly interested in the purported lack of effective mentoring for female associates at large firms. This is where you come in...

I am asking women who are working/have worked/know women who have worked at large firms to share stories with me about the role mentors have played in their work life. I will not ask for names of firms or the women's names, even (if anonymity is a concern). I am interested in seeing whether the reports that say women are severely disadvantaged at large firms because of their inability to find good mentors are accurate. Reports indicate that ineffective mentoring is a huge reason behind women's low retention rates. My goal is to get a range of stories to present some sort of narrative within my work.

Your responses may be as brief or detailed as you would like. Feel free to post responses on the Ms. JD forum I created (same title as this blog post), or if you feel more comfortable emailing them to me, you can click on the "bethb" link and then click "contact bethb" to send me an email.

Examples include instances where female partners have been unreceptive to attempts to create a mentor-mentee relationship; where female partners have been especially good about taking more junior women at the firm under their wings; where women have found especially good male mentors; etc. Anything really is fair game.

Thanks very much in advance for your help!