We all know by now (hopefully) that mentoring is keenly important to the success of diverse law students and attorneys.  Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, is a testament to this fact.  As shown in a recent New York Times news story, she was closely mentored by Judge Jose Cabranes.  Cabranes, who is also Puerto Rican (and who also graduated from Yale Law School) served as Yale's general counsel before being appointed to the federal bench in 1979.  Sotomayor initially met Cabranes at a luncheon.  “At the end of the lunch, Jose offered me a summer job.  I accepted, and Jose became my first legal (profession) employer, then my mentor and career advisor,” Sotomayor said.  Although their paths eventually diverged (and Sotomayor took on other mentors like Judge Miriam Cedarbaum (S.D. NY)), Cabranes was the person who encouraged Sotomayor to apply for a district attorney position, and who put her on the judgeship track.

Guess those luncheons can be helpful after all.  Anyway, you can read the full story here (NYT) or here (The Chicago Tribune -- "Through key recommendations from influential mentors, the Supreme Court nominee built up a civic resume before taking the bench.")

By the way, Sotomayor has acknowledged many other mentors including "a debate coach who recruited her to Princeton, a law firm partner who pushed her to seek a judgeship, [and] a pioneering female judge who bonded with her over a shared disdain for any hint of philosophizing from the bench."  Let this be a lesson to us all about the power of mentoring.

Help a fellow law student out--you could be mentoring the next Supreme Court justice!