‘A safe zone’: how mentors can help young women in law

The legal profession hasn’t traditionally been ahead of the curve on formal mentorship programmes, instead relying on a more informal, organic exchange of knowledge between senior lawyers and young starters. WIPR reports.

The legal profession hasn’t traditionally been ahead of the curve on formal mentorship programmes, instead relying on a more informal, organic exchange of knowledge between senior lawyers and young starters. 

But, as the industry grapples with a lack of diversity, it’s time to consider how mentorship could help young women advance their careers in the traditionally male-dominated world of law.

This is especially true in the context of evidence that mentorship remains an afterthought in the legal profession. A 2006 article in the American Bar Association’s Bar Leader journal observed that the “informal system in which a partner took a new associate under his or her wing has broken down because of the increased business pressures within the profession”.