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Mentoring Opportunities

Bristol Law Society does not currently offer a mentoring programme for its members. However, we help facilitate introductions and connect our members to mentoring schemes looking for mentors and mentees. We have listed below the mentoring opportunities that may be of interest to our members.

If you have a mentoring opportunity that you would like to share, please email info@bristollawsociety.com for further information. We do not advertise all mentoring opportunities, but will share those that we think will be beneficial to our members (either as a mentor or mentee).

Please note that the mentoring opportunities information is correct at the time of writing, but may be subject to change by the relevant mentoring organisations and we may not be made aware of such changes. Please note that by clicking any of the links you will be leaving this website. Bristol Law Society does not accept responsibility for the content of external websites.

Previous Events & Webinars:

 

University of Bristol Mentoring

Many of you have generously supported our range of mentoring schemes for a number of years. Your support and wisdom are invaluable to our students, with one of this year’s mentees stating that it was the most useful and effective opportunity she has engaged with so far in her time at Bristol.

We're now recruiting mentors for schemes starting in Autumn 2023, and we have three ways you can get involved:

🔸 Professional Mentoring Scheme
Links students with UK-based qualified solicitors or barristers working in corporate/commercial roles.

🔸 Law in Society Mentoring Scheme
Links students with UK or international law alumni working in non-corporate/commercial roles where a law degree may be a requirement and/or provide a useful skill set for the role (e.g. charity, not-for-profit, policy, government, Human Rights roles etc).

🔸 International Law Mentoring Scheme
Links law graduates working outside of England and Wales in legal roles in the student's home country to help maintain and develop professional networks

Please sign up here to support one of our schemes.

For more information about all three schemes, please see the Law School mentoring webpages or email us on law-employability@bristol.ac.uk

 

UWE Bristol Mentoring

The UWE Bristol Alumni Connect connects students and alumni around the world. You can find industry experts, professional contacts and local connections. You can offer to be a mentor or browse for a mentor yourself.

Find out more about Alumni Connect here: https://www.uwe.ac.uk/alumni/alumni-connect

UWE Equity students can also sign up to the UWE mentoring programme. Equity mentoring is an innovative, positive-action talent programme for UK Black, Asian and minority ethnic students.

Find out more about Equity here. https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/career-development/equity/equity-mentoring

BPP University Access to Practice Mentoring Scheme

The BPP “Access to Practice” legal mentoring scheme connects its students with a qualified solicitor, barrister or legal professional, who can provide advice and support on pursuing a career in law.

The main purpose is to provide a student who does not yet have legal contacts or a Training Contract, with access to a mentor in practice, an opportunity to build their network and connections in the legal market, understand more about the current legal recruitment process and build their knowledge and confidence in starting their future legal career.

Applications to become a mentor are currently closed and will open again in early 2023.

University of Law Mentoring Scheme

The University of Law is still accepting expressions of interest for mentors for its law students. The Mentoring Scheme will kick of in November and aims to link current students with a mentor in their chosen area of law.

Women Lawyers Division Bristol Mentoring Network 2023

WLD Bristol are looking for both mentors and mentees that would be interested in taking part in the 2023 scheme. At the moment they are focusing on female-to-female mentoring from the networks but if take-up is good, we anticipate working with other organisations to widen the opportunity to all genders and developing a more formal longer-term mentoring scheme.

Association of Muslim Lawyers

Connecting experienced lawyers with students and graduates from an underrepresented background with a view to increasing diversity in the legal profession.

If you are willing to be a mentor, please click here: https://forms.gle/65vcLnevLcvLNtJg7

If you wish to apply to be a mentee, please click here: https://forms.gle/Nyc6HvqEnohjeYHU8

Grow Mentoring (next Mentee Cohort – February 2023) – Looking for Mentors

GROW is a registered charity aiming to advance social mobility, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession through mentoring.

GROW pairs aspiring lawyers with professionals who have similar backgrounds or interests in the legal industry. This way of pairing is important to us as it allows mentees to feel represented in the industry and have a mentor who can be understanding, on a more personal level, of the challenges the mentee may be facing.

Become a mentor

  • GROW mentors are expected to offer a one hour call a month to their mentee with email contact in-between as appropriate. Mentors are not there to review applications, but to offer guidance and insights to the mentee in order to help them achieve their goals. Find out more about becoming a mentor here: https://www.growmentoring.org/mentors

Become a mentee

  • GROW will match you with a mentor in the legal industry based on mutual commonalities, be it law firm ambition, degree background, university or member of the same underrepresented community. Mentors are not there to review applications, but to offer guidance and insights to help you achieve your goals. More information can be found about signing up to become a mentee here: https://www.growmentoring.org/mentees

Please note that mentee applications are currently closed and will re-open in February 2023.

Interlaw IDFconnect mentoring programme

The IDFconnect Mentoring Programme is dedicated to supporting the career development of lawyers from all strands of diversity (LGBT+, Race & Ethnicity, Disability, Gender) and Social Mobility.

You can find out more about the mentoring programme and how your organisation can get involved here: https://www.interlawdiversityforum.org/idfconnect

Rise2inspire Mentoring program

The Rise2inspire mentoring program will give individuals the opportunity to be inspired to pursue their dreams and ambitions. It is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool from which mentees can gain invaluable guidance through direction, advice, criticism, and suggestions. They will be working with and learning from past Rise Award winners, who are successful business owners, entrepreneurs and valuable members of the Black community.

Rise2Inspire are keen to hear from more solicitors and persons involved in law who could act as potential mentors and people from African /Asian heritage community, in particular young students in law, who would be interested in this unique mentoring programme.

Please note the above programme now has sufficient mentors but are still looking for potential law mentees.

https://www.rise2inspire.com/

https://www.rise2inspire.com/development-programs/

Social Mobility Foundation Mentoring program

As an SMF Mentor, you can personally help a young person on our Aspiring Professionals Programme on a one-to-one basis via email. Becoming an SMF mentor is a great way to see someone develop and help them to reach their potential by giving them useful insights into how to get a job like yours.

Over 9 months, you’ll support a young person by increasing their understanding of their desired career and professional life. You will also help them explore their professional interests further, support them in their university application, general skills development, as well as supporting them with other new experiences they are facing, such as their first internship or first job.

Being a mentor is just a 15–30-minute fortnightly commitment and all emails that you send and receive go through our designated and secure website to ensure that your personal details are not passed onto your mentee.

They are currently recruiting for our 2023 cycle which will launch in the Spring. You can sign up here: https://www.socialmobility.org.uk/get-involved/professionals/ways-to-get-involved/ 

Looking for a Mentor?

Are you looking for a Mentor? Here are a number of other organisations who have mentoring schemes that you might also be interested in (both for students and qualified professionals):