Joshua Briones

Briones used to think about what it would be like to work inside.

He and his parents were migrant field workers. It was good, hard work, but he said he pondered over whether an associate degree from Evergreen Valley College in San Jose could get him a good job in a bank, where he wouldn't have to be out in the heat.

"When I was getting my AA degree, I started to meet on a pretty regular basis with a counselor who one afternoon asked me whether I ever thought of going to law school and becoming a lawyer," Briones said. "That conversation led to more conversations, and from there I started thinking about entering the law. It wasn't until she mentioned it that I ever even thought about something like that."

Briones more than surpassed his dream of getting an associate degree. With a J. D. from UCLA School of Law an L.L.M from New York University School of Law, the former agricultural worker is now the managing member of Mintz Levin's Los Angeles office.

Briones attributes some of his success to the mentorship he received along the way. In addition to the counselor who first inspired him to go to law school, Mintz litigation chair Scott C. Ford and the firm's managing member Robert I. Bodian were also influential in his legal law career, Briones said.

Mentoring junior attorneys is also something Briones incorporates into his legal practice. He mentors Crystal Lopez, an associate.

Briones said mentorship like he received from so many, and now offers to associates like Lopez, is "tremendously valuable."

"There have been moments when I've had the opportunity to talk to middle school students or law school students or even recent graduates or associates," Briones said. "I can sense by the questions they ask or the way they talk about themselves that they could use guidance and mentorship. I've appreciated that now I'm in a position to do that for them."

-- Nicole Tyau