I met my mentors during my second year of law school. I was a student member in the local Inn of Court and had been assigned to Camille J. Iurillo and Judge Pamela A.M. Campbell’s group. At the time, Judge Campbell and Ms. Iurillo were partners in a law firm in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. A few meetings into the Inn year, I stood at the salad bar and became aware that Ms. Iurillo and Judge Campbell were not so discreetly whispering to one another and looking in my direction. As we moved down to the rolls, I found myself in the middle of an interview for a summer clerking position. While we were selecting desserts, I was essentially hired and, by the end of the buffet, I was awaiting only the formality of an actual office interview. Soon after the summer clerkship began several months later, the firm began a transition, including the departure of Judge Campbell and Ms. Iurillo to separate firms. Indeed, I consider this their first mentoring lesson: how to weather a law firm shakeup.
Judge Campbell and Ms. Iurillo are extraordinary mentors. Admittedly, they “rescued” me after they were settled in their respective new firms and I divided my time during the remainder of law school clerking for both of them. Both offered me an associate position, and I chose to pursue a bankruptcy and litigation practice with Ms. Iurillo. My mentoring relationship with Judge Campbell did not change, although to this day she does not fail to remind me of my choice. After working with Ms. Iurillo for four years as an associate, I resigned to move out of state; however, two years later I was rehired. Considering the success of our mentoring relationship, I asked each of them to share their mentoring wisdom.