BDABar Two-Way Mentorship Scheme

A summary

Mentorship for BDABar members: Mentors offering mentorship to mentees 

  • Who can be a mentee?

    • Any aspiring disabled barrister, who has registered to become a BDABar member and is:

      • College/ Sixth Form student; or

      • University student; or

      • GDL, postgrad, BPC/BVS student; or

      • in the process of seeking pupillage; or 

      • undertaking pupillage

  • Who can be a mentor?

    • Mentors will be barristers or judges who practiced as barristers previously.

    • Mentors do not need to necessarily consider themselves as having a disability as BDABar aims to create Disability-Allies as well. BDABar strongly believes that it is important for our mentors to learn from our mentees about their lived experience of trying to navigate a passage to the Bar when they have additional challenges to tackle. 

    • Consequently, in addition to mentors sharing their knowledge, BDABar mentees will have the opportunity to do the same for their mentors. 

  • What would the mentorship involve?

    • BDABar’s aim is to match up two mentees to each mentor.

    • Every mentee will be matched to their mentor based on the area of law that they are aspiring to practice. 

    • Each mentee will be receiving two hours of mentorship per month for a period of twelve months starting from April 2022. Thus, in total we ask for mentors to volunteer a maximum of two hours per month if they have one mentee or four hours per month if they are assigned to two mentees. 

    • The aims of the mentorship will be:

      • To offer advice and assist on matters related to mentee’s career aspirations;

      • To direct mentees to programmes and opportunities that might of interest to them;

      • To review application forms and statements;

      • To offer advice on how best a mentee should approach mini-pupillage and pupillage applications; 

      • To offer advice, support and tips to succeed in the Bar when having to face additional barriers in accessing the profession;

      • To assist with mock interviews; 

      • To assist with CV building and review; and

      • To assist and advise on how best to network with the Bar. 

    • Mentorship will be tailored to the individual based on where they are in their journey to the Bar.

Mentorship for barristers, Chambers, Inns of Court, and the Judiciary 

  • BDABar considers that the Bar suffers from a serious problem; the Bar lacks understanding of the challenges that aspiring disabled barristers face in accessing the profession. This problem stems from lack of awareness and training on disabilities and the experiences of disabled individuals. This lack of understanding is problematic when aspiring barristers try to access the profession as the support that they receive does not reflect their needs and it is often inadequate. Consequently, BDABar aims to offer mentorship to barristers, Chambers, Inns of Court and members of the Judiciary in order to support them by increasing awareness. 

  • BDABar’s mentorship to barristers, Chambers, Inns of Court and the Judiciary aims to:

    • Share findings of the BDABar research on the following topics (and many more as the BDABar Research team develops):

      • Current barriers preventing disabled aspiring barristers from accessing the Bar;

      • Types of disabilities; 

      • Potential solutions that can assist with dismantling the barriers within the Bar that disproportionately affect aspiring barristers from marginalised communities with chronic conditions and disabilities. 

      • Feedback on the mini-pupillage process

      • Feedback on the pupillage recruitment process 

      • Explain what the term ‘accessibility’ really includes. 

      • Identify the benefits and flaws of hybrid working

    • Share information guides produced by the BDABar Research team.

    • Offer seminars and lectures on how Chambers and the Inns of Court can best provide reasonable adjustments for mini-pupillages, scholarships and pupillage.  

    • Engage in partnerships with Chambers, enabling them to access and participate in our mini-pupillage, mentorship and allyship schemes. 

    • Promote the use of specific charities for training purposes when members of the profession are not confident in accommodating a disability.

For further inquiries please contact mentorship@bdabar.org.