Peer Mentor-Coaching in the Massachusetts Trial Court

ABSTRACT

INNOVATIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR JUDGES The Massachusetts Trial Court's judicial mentoring program is called J2J, for judge-to-judge. Later, when we resumed jury trials, I held Zoom meetings for my new judge mentees to prepare them to manage the heavy caseload and provided a forum for nuanced analysis and discussion of complex jury management issues to compensate for their lack of traditional courtroom experience due to the pandemic. - New judge mentee History of the J2J Program The J2J Program began in 2009 when the Massachusetts Trial Court sought a formal and structured means of professional development for judges identified as struggling in a particular area. Working with an outside consultant5 and the director of judicial education in the Trial Court's Judicial Institute,6 a core group of judges initiated and developed an innovative program of peer mentor-coaching support for judges likely to benefit from focused, collaborative work with a trained colleague.7 While mentor-coach/mentee work proved beneficial to the judges involved in this context, the resource was not widely publicized or sought after, and it was considered remedial and rather stigmatizing in nature.