21 April, 2016
Deacons was the proud sponsor of the first event in Women in Law Hong Kong’s (WILHK) cross-firm and industry pilot mentoring programme last Thursday, 14 April 2016. Held at Jones Lang LaSalle, the mentors and mentees selected for the pilot programme made kimchi together and, once the cooking was done, were treated to Korean delicacies made by Mina Park of Sook Private Kitchen. Throughout the event, the participants completed forms setting out their thoughts regarding the individuals they met so that the WILHK mentoring sub-committee can pair the mentors and mentees. The announcement of the mentor/mentee pairs will take place at the next event scheduled to be held in May.
WILHK's mentoring programme is unique in that it is dedicated to the legal profession where male and female mentors are matched with female mentees across different law firms and companies. This encourages openness and confidential support for mentees and is also beneficial for mentors as they will gain a better understanding of the real issues facing juniors in their own teams. In addition to one-on-one mentoring, the mentoring programme will also involve skills training workshops and networking sessions that are supervised by a dedicated WILHK sub-Committee to ensure that mentors and mentees are properly supported. This is the first year that the mentoring programme has been offered by WILHK and there were a large number of applicants both as mentees and mentors. 22 individuals have been selected for the pilot programme from a mixture of backgrounds including, in-house, private practice, business development and professional support lawyers.
Deacons was one of the first law firms to offer to sponsor the programme. The partners have also been supportive with a number applying and been selected as mentors for the pilot programme.
The pilot programme will run for 10 months following which WILHK will evaluate whether to offer it again next year. If you would like any further details regarding the programme or would like to get involved with WILHK simply email info@wilhk.com or get in touch with Nina Fitzgerald, a Senior Associate in the Intellectual Property department and Co-chair of WILHK.
