Mentoring scheme

The Court of Protection Bar Association is pleased to announce its Mentoring Scheme which is now up and running for members of the Association (to join, see here).

There is a Mentoring Guide which explains the purpose of the Scheme and makes some suggestions.

The Guide also explains Application Forms and Where to Send Them, for (1) Mentees; and (2)
Mentors.

In short:

    • A mentor will be their mentee’s doughty champion and insightful guide
    • Examples of the kind of help mentees can expect are:
      • practical and focussed suggestions about how to get into CoP work, raise your CoP profile or develop your practice generally or specifically,
      • advice about getting silk/judicial appointment/onto a panel,
      • advocacy fine tuning and ideas for how to handle judges,
      • tips, hacks and tricks from someone who’s been doing it all for longer,
      • active listening,
      • support with well-being eg bullying, work-life balance problems, issues in chambers, confidence building, dealing with discrimination and/or coping with problems caused by chronic illness.
    • The work that mentees and mentors do together is confidential to them
    • Mentors will not provide advice about specific cases or a legal education service
    • Mentors and mentees will be in different chambers
    • Unless the mentee requests otherwise, junior mentees will be matched with a mentor at least 5 years their senior
    • What assistance is provided, what boundaries set, and how regularly and often mentoring meetings take place will be decided between the mentee and mentor
    • Any problems and/or it’s just not working out, let a member of the Mentoring Committee know and you will be re-paired.

The Mentoring Committee is:

Thomas Jones – TJones@9goughchambers.co.uk

Naomi Winston – NaomiWinston@tenoldsquare.com

Katie Gollop QC – kgollopqc@serjeantsinn.com

We think the Scheme will be a beautiful and fun thing that will benefit both parties.

Applications are welcome at any time, as are feedback and ideas.