Mentoring promotes professionalism.

There she was in the men's room, surrounded by urinals, chasing a male lawyer for some withheld documents in a discovery dispute in a big commercial case.

Call it Katherine Clark Silverglate's moment or reckoning.

After four years of lawyering at a large national firm, she didn't like the distrusting, ruthless, hardened, go-for-the-jugular trial lawyer she had become.

"I think I scared the man to death. He said, 'I will give you anything you need if you will just leave!' I saw myself as not knowing how to cope, turning into that stereotypical bulldog lawyer crap," Silverglate recalls.

She wasn't herself and she didn't like it. Raised by an Irish mother who grew up in a convent, Silverglate had gone to Catholic schools, and once had a very sheltered, idealistic view of the world. Then, to her horror, she found herself turning into a cutthroat lawyer. She wasn't happy. She just wasn't going to do it anymore. Even though she was making a lot of money, she quit her job.

A friend working at another firm was moving, and called Silverglate to persuade her to go for her job. At that new job at that new firm in Miami, a seasoned lawyer named Mike Nachwalter showed Silverglate by example how it is possible to be a good lawyer and a good person at the same time.

"My mentor made all the difference," says Silverglate, now a happy, inspired lawyer with 15 years experience, involved in Bar activities, passionate about the profession.

"In my fourth year of practice, I quit. I couldn't figure it out. I was too stupid to know I needed someone to help me."

Now, as vice hair of The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism, Silverglate is bus spreading the gospel to law students about the importance of linking up with a mentor in the Bar's E-Mentoring Project. She got a 100-percent sign-up response when she gave her one-hour dramatic monologue to about 160 students at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami. After the first of the year, she will make her presentation at Barry University, Coastal University, and the University of Miami law schools, eventually hitting every law school n the state.

The project pairs law students with experienced lawyers willing to share stories and give advice via e-mail. The goal is to provide a safety et for young lawyers before they leave law school, before they pass the bar, and before they take on the responsibility of representing the interests of clients in Florida.

Admitting she always wanted to be an...