The Queen’s Law Shadow Program matches first-year law students with employers to learn first-hand how to navigate law school and the job search process.
Robert Eisenberg, Partner in WeirFoulds’ Commercial Leasing Program, is a volunteer with the program and a mentor to Nazneen Sindha. In an interview with Queen’s Law published on March 2, 2022, Robert says, “Queen’s Law is a wonderful community and I found that when I was a student in Nazneen’s position, I was able to reach out to upper-year students and alumni to ask questions and get advice during my own recruitment process,”.
For Robert, participating in the Shadow Program is part of “paying it forward” and preserving the connection amongst Queen’s Law grads. “As the first lawyer in my family, I also remember feeling very anxious and overwhelmed by the process – you don’t know what you don’t know. I hope that by participating in this program, I can help students better understand the recruitment process, realize what’s important to them and what their own goals are, and formulate a strategy for navigating the process.”
Robert and Nazneen met via Zoom on February 24th and like with all his mentees, Robert first took the time to get to know Nazneen and find out what was important to her. Then, together, they developed a plan to cover the material she wanted to learn about and to find some strategies that would work for her. “Robert created a very welcoming environment from the moment the meeting started until the very end,” says Nazneen. “He did not rush through anything and answered all my questions thoroughly.”
Robert went on to speak to Nazneen about the OCI process, “At the end of the day, the OCI process, and student recruitment more generally, is about finding a good fit that works both ways,” he continues. “If a student tries to fit into a firm, then I’ve found they usually don’t stay happy long. Instead, if students try to find a firm that fits them as well, it leads to much greater satisfaction. Ultimately, I think that we can all get lost in the purpose of student recruitment and what success looks like; ‘winning’ shouldn’t be about just getting any job, it should be about finding the right job – and the right job is different for every person. I think changing the perspective on the process goes a long way towards reducing the anxiety and strain on mental health.”
Read the full article on the Queen’s Law website here.
