“Mentoring often means becoming part of the family,” says Joel Zweibel (’55). The retired senior partner of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP is seen here with “Exhibit A,” Dante Joel Randall. Dante is the youngest son of Baruch alumnus Dalton Randall (’06), one of Zweibel’s first mentees. Dante Joel is also Zweibel’s godson and namesake. Zweibel and his wife and the Randall family keep in close touch.
Dalton is currently an associate at the Boston-based law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. When he was an undergraduate history major, Dalton may not have set his sights quite so high if not for Zweibel. “I persuaded Dalton to apply to Harvard Law and helped him with the process,” says Zweibel. A star student, Dalton was also accepted to NYU, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Duke Law Schools. Zweibel couldn’t be more pleased.
“Mentoring is one of the most wonderful things retirees can do,” says Zweibel, who is one of the five founding members of Baruch College’s Executives On Campus (EOC) program, a former alumni advisor to the College’s Pre-Law Society, and probably the biggest advocate for mentoring you’ll ever meet.
Today, he and his wife have an extended family of almost 20 mentees, overwhelmingly Baruch grads. “You start as a professional advisor,” he explains, “and become a friend and a father to these kids. The relationships build upon themselves. We love them, and they love us back.” Joel’s wife, Chrystine, established the prestigious annual Joel B. Zweibel Pre-Law Honors Award at Baruch College as a surprise present for her husband’s 70th birthday.
—Diane Harrigan
Zweibel is not only an expert mentor but a pioneering bankruptcy lawyer. The Deal magazine sat down with him for an extensive Q&A for its September 2011 issue.