Our theme for this 2025-2026 bar year is “Leading Together.” This theme is intended to recognize the work of the WBA to serve its members and the legal profession by providing meaningful connections and opportunities for leadership.

We asked our honorees to share their insight and advise about leadership and coaching.  Their responses are below.

Bridget Bailey Lipscomb: I worked extremely hard throughout my career and always strived for excellence. Early in my legal career, I did not have anyone to guide or mentor me. After I obtained experience in the profession, I was committed to help those that came after me so that they would have a support system.

Amy Bess: How did you develop the skills that helped you to be able to act as a mentor or coach? I was lucky enough to have a great mentor who was the former chairman of my prior firm, who was an amazing leader and humanitarian.  When you spoke to him, you always felt like you were the most important person in the world to him in that moment.  He was a terrific listener and cared deeply about others and their well-being, and he could also ask tough questions and give candid and pointed feedback when needed.  I have tried my best to incorporate his example of exceptional mentoring into the way I approach mentoring and coaching.

Hon. Deborah Israel: Mentoring was modeled to me through the many and varied mentors I have had throughout my career. Each mentor had their own style and each one brought their own focus, priorities, and experiences which were lessons for me. I also actively sought out leadership training to sharpen my skills.

My very first mentor was a senior associate. She showed up in my door when I was a first year, told to bring my coat and drug me to my first Community Projects Committee meeting. I didn’t know where I was going…I was just tagging along with a senior associate. She wasn’t even in my practice group, but what she was doing was mentoring. She was a member of the WBA – and within my first few weeks as a newly minted lawyer, so was I.  Early in my career, more senior WBA members would draft me into projects for the bar – developing and running events, receptions, fundraising, developing new ideas, putting together new programs (like the WBA Golf Tournament), coat drives, setting up panels, you name it. Back then, I didn’t know what I know now – all of that was mentoring. I was networked into leadership, I was taught about service to the community, senior attorneys kept an eye out for me and steered me to opportunities. They connected me and guided me. And that is how my sense of good mentoring developed.

But we don’t just have mentors at the beginning of our careers – if we’re smart (and lucky), we have them always. The many women (and the men) I have worked with, in the WBA and in my career more broadly, have been mentors to me – right up to this very day. They have coached me, encouraged me, and pointed the way. Sometimes it takes a peer to be able to tell you when you need to tone it down – or step it up. I can hear things from my many mentors here – that I might otherwise disregard if it came from elsewhere. That’s one of the gifts of the long-term relationships we have with each other. We know each other. We’ve been in the trenches together. And that cements trust. I can listen to suggestions, even tough ones – because I trust the messengers.

Nancy Long: Over the years managing complex nonprofit matters gave me the clarity and foresight necessary to guide younger attorneys through similar challenges. I learned to listen first and give advice second—a skill I saw modeled by WBA and WBAF leaders early in my career.

Explaining complicated legal concepts to nonlegal board members helped me develop the patience and clarity that I now use when mentoring young lawyers.

Serving in bar association leadership with lawyers from varied and diverse backgrounds helped me formalize my mentoring style.

Susan Kovarovics: I learned from those who mentored me and others whom I viewed as being strong mentors or sponsors for others.  I sought to be intentional about identifying the characteristics and approaches that I most appreciated and then aimed to incorporate those into my mentoring.  I also took note of aspects of those around me that I thought detracted from effective mentoring and tried to avoid those in my mentoring.

Michelle Webster: I built my skills around seeing what junior lawyers needed to know or understand to feel integrated and crucial in litigation to the matters they were working on.  I believe that the more valued a person feels in their position, the more committed they are and the more they are willing to work.  I also tend to think about what I wish I had known early on in my career and hope to provide guidance and support to others so that they feel connected and confident in their abilities.

Bridget Bailey Lipscomb: I emphasize the Five P’s (proper preparation prevents poor performance) to all of my mentees and all young lawyers. That is my mantra.

Amy Bess: You’ve got to own your own professional path.  No one else is going to know what you need and where you want to go any better than you will.  A mentor can guide you and support your success along that journey, but a mentor’s job is not to tell you what to do or where to go next.

Hon. Deborah Israel: Yes. Although anyone who knows me knows that any saying I would have would likely be inappropriate for public consumption. But there is at least one I can share – “the burden of learning is on the student.”  One of my earliest mentors in private practice shared this with me and it has always stuck. For me, it is a reminder that when I am a mentee, I am asking someone to invest in me. To give their time and energy. I am asking to learn. And I am the one that needs to learn. I am not entitled to the lessons and no one is obligated to mentor me. So, if someone is willing to share their experience and their time with me – this saying puts me in the right mindset.

Nancy Long: 

• Progress, not perfection. It is important to continually learn vs. over flawless execution.
• Listen to understand, no to reply. Deep listening builds trust and clarity in any mentoring relationship.
• Connection before correction. It is critical to show empathy and rapport before offering critique or advice.
• Bring authenticity and integrity to your mentoring.
• Keep humility at the center and acknowledge the two-way growth that mentorship brings.
• Mentoring has a long-term impact, not immediate results.

Michelle Webster: Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.  – Dolly Parton

Bridget Bailey Lipscomb: After I became a partner in my law firm, I thought that I had attained skills that could be helpful to others. My litigation experience was useful for providing guidance and advice.

Amy Bess: I think once I became a law firm partner, I realized that part of my role and obligation was to support others who were coming up behind me as associates in the firm and to help them figure out if the partner path was something they wanted to pursue and if so, how to get there. But also I felt it was important to help them appreciate that there was absolutely no shame in deciding that partnership was not for them  — as it truly is not for everyone.

Hon. Deborah Israel: I think we tend to think that early in our careers we are mentees and then later we are mentors. I don’t really see this as an “either/or” question. Both things are going on all the time. I still see myself as a mentee. I am still learning. I learn things every single day –  about the law, what it means (and what it takes) to be excellent, and how we practice.

Susan Kovarovics: I never stopped being mentored myself and continue to value being mentored by several people.  That being said, over time, as I advanced in my career, I had the opportunity to pay forward the mentoring benefits that I had received.  People started to seek my advice, and it gave me the opportunity to share what I had learned along the way.  Even when I am the “mentor”, I regularly learn and benefit from the people I mentor, so there is often two way mentoring that occurs.

Michelle Webster: I think getting involved in the WBA and hearing from other women mentors and leaders helped me to see many of their qualities in myself: knowledge, compassion, enthusiasm, dedication, among many others.

Bridget Bailey Lipscomb: My advice is conventional. Mentors should lead by example. Mentors should work hard, be reliable, and be prepared. When I was enrolled in the Leadership Knoxville leadership training program in Knoxville, Tennessee, I was taught to be a servant leader. I recommend that mentors provide time and compassionate service to their mentees.

Amy Bess: Take a meaningful interest in the success of others who are more junior than you in your organization.  Talk to them about their career aspirations, and offer to be a sounding board for them.  Simply listening and asking thoughtful questions about their professional goals and aspirations is a great way to begin the dialog.

Hon. Deborah Israel: There is no single right way to mentor. I have had all types of mentors and I have learned a great deal from everyone. It’s not really something you can force. Mentees do not have to accept mentoring, and likewise, mentors don’t really have to give it. I have learned best from mentors who have had my best interest top of mind. And I have learned best when I have not taken personally their suggestions and observations. That means I have to have my head right when I connect with mentors – and the same is true when I connect with mentees.

For my part, I have tended to focus on people who have asked for my input.  But, in full candor, if I work with folks on a team, like for example my law clerks, I am pretty likely to stick my nose in their business whether or not my input is requested. That is, in part, because I am protective of and loyal to my team – and because I care about their development (but it’s probably also because I have bad boundaries).

Nancy Long:

• Helping others discover their own leadership paths is a powerful and generous goal. Leadership is not a position—it is a mindset. Encourage mentees to lead from wherever they are, not just when they have a title.
• Don’t give answers—give better questions. Self-discovery and critical thinking are more important than providing directive advice.
• Help mentees (and others) see what they cant see about themselves. This provocative thinking reflects on a role in helping others uncover their latent leadership potential.
• Reinforce agency and self-leadership. Self awareness and discipline are foundational to sustainable relationships.
• Help others focus on values and vision before choosing roles or recognition.
• Validate non-linear careers and unconventional leadership journeys.
• Lead by lifting. Leadership is not about being out the front but about elevating others.

Susan Kovarovics:  Rely on your instincts.  Be authentic.  Share what you have learned along the way.  Listen to what those you seek to mentor are saying to you.  Be intentional about identifying approaches that you appreciated from others whose mentoring you observed or benefited from along the way.

Michelle Webster: Take advantage of what is in front of you. There are so many opportunities to build your leadership skills simply by speaking with your colleagues and attending a lot of the programming offered by the WBA.  Beyond that, find ways to engage in a leadership role in your office, a local non-profit, or an affinity bar.  Being cheered on by those that are already part of your community will help you grow as a person and a leader.