Micro-Community Mentoring Circle

By  J. Ryann Peyton, Executive Director, Colorado Office of Attorney Professional Excellence (APEX)

The Office of Attorney Professional Excellence (APEX) is excited to announce the development of a new Micro-Community Mentoring Circle designed specifically for and with neurodivergent legal professionals. This initiative reflects APEX’s ongoing commitment to building a legal profession where everyone can thrive authentically, sustainably, and successfully.

As part of APEX’s evolving mentoring model, Micro-Communities are intentionally designed spaces that bring together legal professionals with shared experiences, identities, interests, or professional challenges to foster deeper connection, tailored support, and meaningful community-building. While traditional mentoring often focuses on individual career guidance, Micro-Communities create opportunities for collective learning, belonging, and ongoing peer connection within the profession.

The legal profession has historically rewarded narrow models of communication, productivity, organization, and professionalism. Many neurodivergent attorneys and legal professionals navigate workplace environments that were not designed with different processing styles, communication preferences, sensory needs, or executive functioning differences in mind. Too often, talented professionals are left feeling isolated, exhausted from masking, uncertain about accommodations, or pressured to fit into rigid professional norms rather than supported in developing practices that allow them to succeed as themselves.

This Micro-Community seeks to create something different.

Rather than focusing solely on traditional career advancement, this mentoring circle is designed to foster belonging, practical support, peer connection, and strengths-based professional development.

Through guided discussion and community dialogue, participants will explore topics including:

• workload management and executive functioning;
• communication and workplace expectations;
• self-advocacy and accommodations;
• burnout prevention and sustainability; and
• recognizing and leveraging neurodivergent strengths within legal practice.

Importantly, this initiative is not built around the idea that neurodivergent professionals need to change any part of themselves to find success in law. Instead, the goal is to create a supportive space that acknowledges variability in how people think, communicate, process information, manage energy, and build successful careers. The circle is intended to model a more inclusive and humane vision of professionalism – one where multiple paths to competence, leadership, and excellence are recognized and respected.

We are currently seeking mentors to help shape and lead this initiative. We welcome mentors who:

• identify as neurodivergent;
• have meaningful familiarity with neurodivergent workplace experiences; or
• care deeply about building a more inclusive legal profession.

We are especially looking for mentors who are comfortable sharing practical strategies, lived experiences, and honest conversations about navigating the profession. Mentors don’t need to be experts or have all the answers. The strength of this Micro-Community will come from mentors with authenticity, flexibility, peer connection, and community wisdom.

Accessibility and inclusion are being intentionally integrated into the structure of the program itself, including advance agendas, flexible participation methods, clear expectations, built-in pause space, and recognition that different communication and participation styles are valid and welcome.

If you are interested in serving as a mentor or helping shape this initiative, please contact our Director of Mentoring Rebecca Payo at r.payo@csc.state.co.us by May 29, 2026. Learn more about APEX and our programs at https://coloradoattorneyexcellence.org/