The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is pleased to announce that Chief Counsel Mark C. Palmer has been appointed to the executive committee of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium (NLMC), one of the nation’s preeminent legal mentoring organizations.
Palmer joins the Commission’s Executive Director Jayne R. Reardon on the executive committee. Reardon was appointed in 2012.
“Mark is a nationally recognized leader in legal mentoring and has taken the Commission’s program to the next level,” said Reardon. “Mark’s wealth of experience and focus on using technology to create an improved mentoring experience will be extremely valuable to the NLMC executive committee. At the Commission, he is currently moving our primarily web-based mentoring program to a dedicated online platform, which will not only increase efficiency but improve engagement between mentors and mentees.”
The NLMC promotes the mentoring of lawyers, legal professionals, and law school students by sharing ideas, approaches, skills, policies, and programs that have succeeded in helping develop successful lawyers of good character.
One of the NLMC’s signature events is its biennial National Legal Mentoring Consortium Conference. The conference brings together leaders in legal mentoring to discuss best practices, new technology, and innovative techniques.
The next conference will be held on October 6-8, 2022, at Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. The Commission on Professionalism will co-host the event, which will focus on online mentoring. Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne M. Burke will be featured as the keynote speaker.
At the Commission, Palmer administers the Illinois Supreme Court’s Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program, which was launched in 2011.
The program pairs new and more experienced attorneys for a year-long curriculum that not only introduces new attorneys to the practice of law but also teaches them how to build careers grounded in professionalism. Under Palmer’s leadership, the Commission’s unique curriculum has become nationally recognized and is often replicated in other organizations.
During his tenure, Palmer has expanded the reach of the Commission’s mentoring program to more than 100 organizations across the state. Since 2011, more than 8,000 mentors and mentees have participated in the program. Of these, 99% say they would recommend the program to other attorneys.
Palmer speaks and writes nationally on the topic of legal mentoring, including speaking at the NLMC’s 2016 and 2018 conferences and contributing to publications including “The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, 2nd Edition,” the Illinois Bar Journal, and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. His reach has even extended overseas to organizations in London and Beijing interested in the Commission’s lawyer mentoring model.
Both legal and non-legal mentoring are pillars of Palmer’s civic activities. He is a program administrator for the Commission’s Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program at the Champaign County Bar Association, a mentor in the University of Illinois I-Promise and Varsity I Mentoring Programs, and served as a mentor and past president of the Champaign-Urbana One-to-One Mentoring Foundation.
About the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism was established by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2005 under Supreme Court Rule 799(c) to foster increased civility, professionalism, and inclusiveness among lawyers and judges in Illinois. By advancing the highest standards of conduct among lawyers and judges, the Commission works to better serve clients and society alike. For more information, please visit 2Civility.org and follow us on Twitter @2CivilityOrg.
Press Contact
Laura Bagby, Communications Director
312-363-6209
laura.bagby@2civility.org