Mentorship in the racing and strict industry as the legal profession is crucial. Mentoring is an invaluable learning opportunity and can provide the mentor with beneficial skills for their career as a barrister such as trust, communication, organization, or critical thinking. During a mentorship, a mentee can benefit from reliable advice, guidance, and data such as those that could not be found online. Mentorships are a great process for aspiring barristers seeking breaking in and supervision for their route.
The experience of a mentee
Hashi Mohamed is a planning lawyer who came from Kenya to the UK. Author of ‘People Like Us’, he talks about the power of mentoring that made him go from being a refugee child to being a barrister. Mentoring first gave him access to people, things, and information that he couldn’t find on his own, whether it was an outing to the theatre, an introduction, or a show, to ‘a detailed analysis of the psychological landscape of the profession. Tips ranged from dress codes, presentation skills or writing a resume to reading a play, determining where you fit into a particular group or the difference between having a goal and having a plan; then a space where he could ask all the questions he wanted, and the possibility of undertaking by proposing ideas; from there, his mentors were honest about his strengths, weaknesses, and the challenges he would face; and finally, a future he hadn’t imagined.
A mentee becoming mentor
Having received mentorship, Hashi later assumed a mentoring role. He thinks that ‘Mentees need limits, and it is not doing them a service to consider behaviours that in fact will not be.’ He once asked a young man to come to his chambers for an observation. He was four minutes late and had brought neither pen nor paper. ‘At the Bar, nothing is more important than being prepared, and you will never get there if you are messy.’ So, I sent him home right away! He is convinced that ‘if it may have seemed excessive to him at the time, it is what he needed at this particular time.’ ’ Hashi also believes that ‘to mentor effectively, it needs to be used honesty, sensitive topics such as race, prejudice and privilege should not be ignored because this will leave an empty in the mentee’s understanding of its situation and it will do it a disservice.’
Mentoring is not about getting someone through, it’s about getting them on the same starting line as everyone else. It’s as if the path to success is on a scale from one to 10, with social mobile starting at zero, and everyone else starting at five. Your work relates to these first five steps; after that, they should be able to take care of themselves.
Mentoring programmes for underrepresented groups
There are many excellent mentoring programs possible within the legal community for potential mentees and mentors to join in such as:
• Cornerstone Barristers, Field Court Chambers, FTB Chambers, Kings Chambers and Landmark Chambers, specializing in Planning, Property and Public Law have set up a mentoring scheme for underrepresented groups at the Bar. The scheme is intended to encourage undergraduates and postgraduates from groups that are not well represented at the Bar to consider becoming barristers.
• Blackstone Chambers, Brick Court Chambers, Essex Court Chambers, Fountain Court Chambers, Gatehouse Chambers, Keating Chambers, 7 King’s Bench Walk, Monckton Chambers, One Essex Court Chambers, and 3 Verulam Buildings created a scheme to support individuals from groups that are underrepresented at the Bar of England and Wales (particularly the Commercial Bar) to pursue careers as barristers. The Bar initiative follows measures introduced by leading City law firms to improve diversity, with Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, and Baker McKenzie among those taking action;
• One Essex Court offers a ‘Women At the Commercial Bar Mentoring Scheme’ an opportunity for potential applicants to the Commercial Bar to connect with a female barrister who can share her experiences and provide career guidance.
A Mentoring Diversity Initiative
In September 2020, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) Race Equality Taskforce introduced a project of ‘a Reverse Mentoring Programme’ consisting of removing barriers to racial equality at the Bar. The programme put together bar students and junior lawyers from ethnic minority groups as mentors, with senior white lawyers as mentees. The teams hold regular one-on-one meetings to discourse about racial equality problems touching the field. Themes comprise the first time the mentor and mentee remarked a lack of inclusion at the bar; what it is in the chambers; and the cases of racial discrimination they have witnessed. ‘Reverse mentoring’ is more probable to bring mutual benefit for mentor and mentee to people who would not have been able to meet otherwise.’
The importance of a proper mentoring
In 2019, The Bar Standards Board (BSB) made an audit to know feelings on the system requiring barristers under the age of three years of practice to follow the instruction of an experienced barrister when exercising hearing rights; undertaking litigation or performing public access work. In conclusion, research implied that the efficacity of mentoring rested on the level of support provided to NQ barristers by QPs. Some questioned if it was too traditional or always needed.
Mentoring is at each stage of a career. Personal development never ends, especially in the legal sector where a continually changing business climate demands flexibility and novelty.
Chambers are now advised to set up mentoring schemes accessible to all levels of seniority. Private practice at the Bar can feel solitary and uncertain, competition is fierce and the adage ‘you are only as good as your next case’, resonates in all practitioners’ minds.
Regarding aspiring barristers, you can also envisage organizing your own mentoring relationship. There is no right moment to find a mentor to be guided.