Could you benefit from our mentoring programme? Find out more about becoming a mentor or a mentee

Our mentoring scheme was created to bring members together to share knowledge and expertise, and offer a fresh perspective.

During the Covid-19 outbreak, such support and advice are even more important and appreciated, and that’s why we’re encouraging our members to sign up to the mentoring scheme, whether you’re looking for support as a mentee or wanting to offer your support as a mentor.

The scheme is open to members from all areas of legal practice, at any point in their careers, and has two strands: career development and student:trainee mentoring.

As a mentee, it could be that you have concerns about how to progress to your next role, want help to develop a new skill that you find difficult or simply want some guidance through these turbulent times.

As a mentor, passing on your experience and knowledge can be very rewarding and is a great way to give back to others in the legal profession.

While we normally require new mentors to complete a full day of training at our offices, we are investigating the possibility of online training to allow as many mentors as possible to join the scheme over the coming months.

In addition, if you already have proven mentoring experience through another organisation, please do get in touch with us, as it may be possible to fast track you onto the scheme as a mentor.

Find out lots more information in our mentoring section on the website.

Existing mentors and mentees

We encourage all our existing matched mentors and mentees to make sure they check in with each other and stay in regular contact throughout the current crisis.

And if you haven’t been matched with a mentor or mentee yet, now is the perfect time to revisit your online profile and refresh it.

As the matches are automatically generated according to the information that both mentors and mentees include on their profiles, it’s vital to complete the profile as fully and accurately as possible to enable the best matches to be found. While we might not be able to meet up in person at the moment, it doesn’t mean we can’t spread the network of support further.

For mentors, consider what wider skills you have beyond your specific area of legal practice, such as:

• “soft skills”, such as communication, self-motivation and teamwork
• further training you have completed, such as presenting skills
• career experiences, such as returning to work after maternity leave

For mentees, it’s important to think about:

• what you want from a mentor and the mentoring relationship
• your specific goals and objectives
• does your existing profile reflect your current needs and ambitions, or have they changed?

To review and refresh your profile, go to the online mentoring platform.