The 5 Who Care and the Power of Mentorship

This got me thinking about the people who have left a profound impact on my professional life, and the power of mentorship in leaving indelible marks on careers and communities, like the Forum. I have been blessed with 5 Who Care in my life, who have helped shape the ins and outs of my legal career and have left a lasting legacy on my daily choices and the overarching direction of my law practice. Not coincidentally, one of these mentors led me to the Forum.

My 5 Who Care are:

• Van E. McFarland
• Dr. Gaylord Jentz
• Jim George
• Barbara Wall
• Bruce E.H. Johnson

While it is true that anyone can be a mentor, it helps if the person you look to as a mentor has substantial knowledge and practical experience in the field that interests you, is willing to share their knowledge and expertise, and will take the time to listen and guide you—all the while being supportive of your development toward achieving your goals. At its core, a mentor is someone who can act as a trusted advisor and coach with a focus on helping others learn and progress.

Coming from a family of nonlawyers (yes, you can credit my stellar social skills to my upbringing by an accountant and engineer), I was fortunate to get a job during college with a solo practitioner, Van E. McFarland, in Houston. I worked for him every holiday and every summer for four years. He was a single father raising three boys on his own with a thriving law practice (something I appreciated even more when I became a single mom).

Van put me to work as a receptionist, legal secretary, law clerk, and more—basically anything that didn’t require a car (because I didn’t have one). He taught me the significant role that lawyers play in helping people solve problems and that every person at a firm plays a critical role in client successes. His was a small shop where cases were “thinly staffed” and files were not overworked. There was no luxury of a “team” of lawyers on a case. You did what needed to be done in the most efficient and effective manner possible—a mantra I still live by today in approaching litigation. In the end, Van wrote my law school letters of recommendation and referred to me as “tenacious.” At the time, I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult. I think he meant the former.

At the University of Texas, I was blessed to be in a number of business law classes with Dr. Gaylord Jentz—ultimately becoming his teaching assistant and helping him research and write his treatise on the Uniform Commercial Code. Dr. Jentz took a keen interest in my life and my desire to go to law school and helped me navigate the uncharted territory of law school applications, law firm interviews, and later the practice of law while raising a family with four children.

We were pen pals while I clerked for a federal judge and regular lunch companions when I moved back to Austin. He sent each of my children cards with $5 in them for every holiday until his death in 2009, and now his wife continues the tradition. I still have Dr. Jentz’s letters reminding me to slow down and spend time with my family.

Because I knew I wanted to practice First Amendment law from the age of 15, it was just a matter of how to get there, and both Van and Dr. Jentz helped me find my way. It was Jim George, though, who gave me my first job practicing in this field, and he too left an indelible mark on my career.

Jim was a law clerk to Thurgood Marshall and a truly brilliant lawyer. He broke the mold of big firm practice by starting his own media defense boutique in 1992. With only a handful of lawyers and high-profile cases for HBO, CBS, Dow Jones, and more, Jim had the same small team, highly efficient, and highly effective approach to litigation that Van had. And, for a baby lawyer like me, this meant great work, immediate client contact, and as much rope as I could hang myself with when it came to responsibilities for a case. Jim, like Van and Dr. Jentz, was a tremendous mentor who provided expertise, experience, and belief in my career.

Still, it wasn’t until Barbara Wall came along that I understood the power of our legal community and how a single client believing in a young lawyer can change the trajectory of a career. Barbara was the head of litigation at Gannett—at the time, the owner of KVUE. And I was defending a case against the station. I made sure every witness was found and interviewed—even going to desolate places in the middle of nowhere Texas—but Barbara knew when the time came to argue the summary judgment that I could do it and she made sure I was given that opportunity.

Although that was definitely a seminal moment in my career, it was her encouraging me to get involved in the Forum that has had an equally lasting impact. Barbara told me about the Forum in 1999, and as I wrote in my previous Chair’s Column, 25 years later, I truly call many Forum members family. Without Barbara’s mentorship, I’m not certain I would have believed I could garner my own clients or practice in such a welcoming community where I look forward to seeing so many of you when I travel for work or pleasure.

Finally, although practicing First Amendment law was always the dream, I never anticipated the twist my career would take in doing policy work: drafting, testifying, and building coalitions to pass laws at a state, national, and international level to protect people’s right to speak freely and for the public to be informed. I certainly didn’t have the usual pedigree to become a lobbyist, but I did have a secret weapon: Bruce E.H. Johnson.

I can credit the mentorship of Bruce Johnson for helping lead me down the policy path since 2005. Bruce is the person I could look to as a role model when I first became interested in passing a reporter’s privilege, then Anti-SLAPP, then retraction. After all, he had done all of these things in Washington. He was the quintessential mentor, freely giving of his time and expertise, serving as an exemplar and cheerleader, and always there to strategize about how to propel these ideas into action. Like Van and Dr. Jentz before him, Bruce will be sorely missed.

My point in writing about all of this is to demonstrate the power mentorship can provide in cultivating the future leaders in our Forum and legal communities. A few years ago, Robb Harvey and Carolyn Forrest came up with the idea of pairing first-timers at the Forum’s annual conference with a more “seasoned” attendee to help that person meet others in the Forum and perhaps start a mentorship relationship. This year, Christine Walz and Heather Goldman ran the program, with the help of Jacquelyn Schell, Kaitlin Gurney, Kristel Tupja Barnett, Brian Sher, and Brian Underwood. It was a resounding success, with 72 first-timers.

Whether you were a first-timer or paired with one, I encourage you to continue those relationships and lean into the mentorship opportunities it can provide. Even if you weren’t paired with someone at this year’s Forum conference, be one of the 5 Who Care in a Forum member’s life—the impact can be profound.