Hampshire Law Society - Mentoring Guidelines
The Purpose...
1. The purpose of our mentoring scheme is to provide support and guidance for Hampshire Law Society members who are:
- In the early stages of their careers
- Returning to the law after a career break
- Switching to the law after a career elsewhere
2. Unlike in times gone by, the legal profession is undergoing enormous change. No longer can a solicitor have a "job for life". Career development for many lawyers means regular changes of firm and changes of town or city. There is unprecedented uncertainty and insecurity within the profession, with whole sections of practice under threat, and new areas of law emerging.
3. Faced with such challenges, many law firms struggle to survive. Often it is the most recently qualified lawyers who face the greatest pressure. We believe that they often need to express and discuss their difficulties with a solicitor outside their firm.
4. For this reason we have established a mentoring scheme for members of Hampshire Incorporated Law Society. We currently have 9 mentors, several of whom are past presidents of the Society.
5. We offer an annual meeting between mentor and mentee, usually over lunch, when the mentee can discuss their situation in absolute confidence.
6. We stress that the main role of the mentor is to give the mentee his or her undivided attention and to listen impartially. We are unable to offer tangible career advice or any material assistance. We believe that if the mentees are given a "safe space" to discuss their situation over lunch, very often they will manage to work out the solution themselves.
7. We respect the paramount need for confidentiality, and to protect the reputation of firms generally. The duty of confidentiality applies to both mentors and mentees. To further protect the interests of firms, we require that the mentor and mentee must practice at least 20 miles apart.
8. It is envisaged that each pairing will last 3 years. After the end of that time, it is assumed that the pairing will lapse, unless both parties express the positive intention to continue.
9. The mentoring relationship is entirely informal, without any obligation on either side, and either party is at liberty to leave the scheme at any time.
10. At present the scheme does not contain any mentors from ethnic minorities. We hope that over time, the scheme will develop and further prospective mentors from more diverse backgrounds will come forward to offer their services, thereby widening the appeal of the scheme generally.
11. We are seeking additional mentors. If you are a senior solicitor practising in Hampshire, and you feel that the newer members of the profession might benefit from your experience, then we would be delighted to hear from you.
12. No particular qualifications are needed to fulfil the role of mentor. The main attribute should be a willingness to provide a "safe space" where the mentee can speak freely over lunch, while you listen impartially. There is no obligation to give any advice. The general idea is that quite often the mentee will be perfectly capable of solving their own difficulties unassisted, provided he or she is given the opportunity to talk everything through with a senior solicitor, in complete confidentiality. The chances are that as a senior solicitor, you have probably "heard it all before". Communicating your experiences to your mentee may well make that person feel that he or she is not alone.
13. Senior solicitors joining the scheme as mentors are likely to have substantial reputations. We therefore reiterate that anything discussed at the annual lunch between mentor and mentee must remain strictly confidential. Any mentee failing to respect this will be excluded from the scheme.
14. If you would like to be a mentor, then please send your CV to our administrator, for circulation at the next committee meeting. As with mentees, although we will try to accommodate everybody, this cannot always be guaranteed.
15. While on the face of it the mentoring scheme is altruistic, there is a dual purpose in that we hope mentees benefitting from the scheme will continue to be members of Hampshire Law Society in future years. Even if they leave Hampshire to develop their careers elsewhere, we hope that they will return again in the future and resume their HILS membership. Creating a supportive atmosphere among Hampshire solicitors is therefore part of this long-term goal.
16. Set out below is a description of the process.
The Process...
17. If you are a mentee seeking a mentor, then please send your CV to the administrator of Hampshire Incorporated Law Society, Nicola Jennings.
18. Once your CV has been received, then this will be circulated at the next meeting of the HILS committee, to establish if there are any reasons why the application cannot be considered further.
19. The administrator will maintain an alphabetical list of mentors. Provided there are no objections to the application received (for example if you have already had a HILS mentor previously), the administrator will then allocate each mentee to a mentor on a "first come, first served" basis. Although we will use our best endeavours, we cannot guarantee that we can match everybody, and it is always possible we will be unable to accommodate you, despite our best efforts.
20. It is possible that the mentee might specifically request a mentor practising within a particular subject area. We do not encourage this, because the whole point of the mentoring scheme is to discuss broader issues arising from professional practice, rather than focusing on narrow specialist concerns.
21. The administrator will maintain a register of pairings. This will include the name, professional address, telephone, e-mail and preferred method of contact of each mentor and mentee. If there is a breakdown in the process (for example if repeated attempts to arrange the lunch are unsuccessful), then the administrator is the first point of contact. She will refer the matter to the next committee meeting, with a view to matters becoming resolved to mutual satisfaction.
22. Once a sufficient number of pairings has been established, all the new mentees will be invited to a short social event, probably afternoon tea, to meet the mentors collectively. The afternoon tea will take place at the Botley Grange Hotel, one hour before normal committee business. If either party cannot attend, it will be up to the mentee to make contact with the mentor to arrange an alternative time to meet.
23. We reserve the right to reject certain applications, mainly on the basis that there might be a mismatch between the numbers of mentors and mentees. If the mentee is rejected, then their documents will be returned and we invite that person to reapply the following year.
24. The mentor and mentee should meet once a year, usually over lunch. We encourage the mentee to travel to the mentor, and the mentor to pay for the lunch. If mentees cannot get enough time off work, then alternative arrangements can be made.
25. Other than the annual meeting, and the arrangements for setting it up, we discourage repeated contact between the mentor and the mentee. The service we provide is an annual confidential meeting, over a period of 3 years. After each meeting, it is expected that the parties will go their separate ways, before arranging a further rendezvous for lunch again the following year.
26. Any mentees who make unreasonable demands on their mentor, for example by persistent demands for advice or contact, will be excluded from the scheme.
27. Both mentor and mentee must be happy with the location of all meetings giving due regard to safety, security, mutual well-being and travel arrangements.
28. The mentors will meet each year to review the operation of the scheme.
29. We intend that the scheme should be greatly beneficial to the general well being of solicitors in Hampshire.
8 September 2010