Mentor Program Celebrates Partnerships

Judge Eric Bergstrom of the Multnomah County Circuit Court was presented with the Andrea Swanner Redding Outstanding Mentor Award on April 7 during the mentor program’s spring awards reception. The award is given to the mentor of an upper-division student, based on a nomination by the student.

Also receiving awards for their outstanding mentoring of first-year law students were the following:

Angela Franco Lucero ’03, a litigation partner at Kranovich & Lucero, who mentored Llamilet Gutierrez ’12.Andrea Ogston ’05, an attorney in the Student Legal Services Office at Portland State University, who mentored Erica Rothman ’12.Josh Ross ’03, a litigation associate at Stoll Berne, who mentored Darren Nichols ’12.Matti Neustadt Storie ’07, a technology and intellectual property associate at Stoel Rives, who mentored Lana Chow ’12.

Michael Hsu ’11 was recognized as the outstanding mentee of the year. His mentor, Judge Michael McShane ’88, of the Multnomah County Circuit Court, stressed how proud he is of Hsu for pushing outside his comfort zone to get involved in a variety of activities during law school. McShane also commented on how much he has enjoyed working with the student and that he has received a great deal himself from the experience of mentoring Hsu.

“This year, more than 275 attorneys and judges served as mentors to law students,” says Libby Davis ’93, associate dean for career services and alumni relations, who oversees the mentor programs. “In addition to attending planned events, the mentors spent countless hours coaching and supporting students with their legal studies, career plans, and individual challenges. I’m always so impressed with what I hear from students about their experiences, but this year the mentoring experience seemed to be especially important to students and rewarding for mentors.”

My name is Todd Jackson and I’m a second-year student here at Lewis & Clark Law School. My mentor is Judge Bergstrom.

Now, I want to be a prosecutor, so when I applied to this mentor program, I put that down on my application.

Alternatively, I figured judges know a lot of people, so if I couldn’t get paired with a prosecutor, a judge would be a pretty good mentor too. So I wrote that down.

I was paired with Judge Bergstrom, a young judge who had worked in the Multnomah County district attorney’s office for 15 years prior to joining the bench, and who, according to the Multnomah Bar Association website, had a memorable performance at a lawyer stand-up comedy competition. So, needless to say, I was excited to meet him.

As a mentor, Judge Bergstrom has gone above and beyond what I ever could have expected. For example, I mentioned to him I wanted to be a prosecutor; he set up two job shadow days for me with both the Multnomah County and Clackamas County district attorney’s offices. I mentioned I had interviews coming up with those offices; he had me meet him at the courthouse, in his chambers, to talk with him about interview techniques and what the offices really look for in applicants. I mentioned I’m writing a research paper and had come up against some difficult issues; he immediately called a lawyer he knows that deals with those types issues for me to talk to (literally, I was sitting in his chambers, mentioned my paper, and he dialed his phone).

It is apparent that Judge Bergstrom is very well respected in the community by lawyers on both sides of the aisle as well as by his fellow judges. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told how lucky I am to have Judge Bergstrom as my mentor.

This mentorship is much more than meeting up at the scheduled events and shooting the breeze for an hour, talking about career goals and whatnot. He actually went out of his way to really help me achieve those goals. I appreciate him very much and look forward to continuing our relationship as I finish law school and become a member of the bar.