Kosovo Bar Association Lawyer to Lawyer Mentor Network on January 2015
Some of the issues faced
In 2014 the Kosovo Bar Association (KBA) Gender and Minority Committee approved their Work Plan for 2014. The plan focuses on increasing the number of female and non-majority lawyers in the legal community through better membership services. There are several projects ranging from mentoring and networking to public education. The aim is to improve the overall delivery of justice in Kosovo. At the moment, out of 567 KBA lawyers only 61 are women, that is 12%.
The OSCE mission’s Legal System Monitoring Section (LSMS) is supporting KBA to establish the mentor-mentee network in the efforts to help the integration of newly/nearly graduated women to start their business as lawyers. KBA has had a mentoring pilot, but only for half a year supported by UNDP and it was a good experience. They are really keen to continue using mentoring with a more structure approach. |
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Answers to those issues
KBA believes that mentoring and networking could play an important role in the lives of lawyers in Kosovo – starting as early as when they are in law school – and continuing throughout their professional lives.
To support lawyers in Kosovo KBA, guided by KVINFO, created its own Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Network , which offers three different kind of mentoring programs.
To support lawyers in Kosovo KBA, guided by KVINFO, created its own Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Network , which offers three different kind of mentoring programs.
Basic program prototype
The objectives of this program are:
Who are mentees in this program?
What is the program’s success criteria?
Success is defined by the number of mentoring pairs that complete a full mentoring cycle in one year.
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Who are mentors in this program?
What mentors and mentess do together?
They work towards achieving the mentee’s concrete goals within 4 categories:
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The objectives of this program are:
What is the matching criteria?
Mentor and mentee should be interested in the same area in law; fx Commercial. Bankruptcy & insolvency. Environmental. Family. Criminal. Civil litigation
What is the program’s success criteria?
Success is defined by the number of mentoring pairs that complete a full mentoring cycle in one year.
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Who are mentors in this program?
Experienced volunteer lawyers, members of KBA, who have “been there” and have worked their way through the ups and downs of practising law.
Who are mentees in this program?Young lawyers seeking a different kind of professional support than the traditional learning of the craft.
What mentors and mentess do together?
They work towards achieving the mentee’s concrete goals within 4 categories:
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Objectives
Who can be mentee?
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Characteristics of the mentoring groups
Who is can be mentor?
To be eligible as a mentor, one must have had significant leadership at a Bar and/or at least 15 years of practice experience
Attendees to prototyping session
Albulena Ukimera, head of the Training Centre, the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates.
OSCE Staff: Jasmin Gojani, Senior Legal Officer, OSCE Mission in Kosovo |
Roles of mentors
- The co-mentors must arrange for a group meeting each month.
- Facilitate group discussion
- Encourage leadership and provide ways in which mentees can demonstrate leadership abilities
- Serve as leadership role models on how mentees should conduct themselves in the legal community
- Maintain confidentiality and ensure the group is doing this as well.
- Inform mentees about appropriate and relevant professional events
- The co-mentors talk about what they do such as:
- Personal qualities needed for his/her type of work;
- How they acquired the specific skills for this job;
- Recommendations to group members for acquiring these skills
- Suggestions they would give to someone applying for their jobs;
- What they like most and least about their jobs;
- Interpersonal skills most important in their work;
- Attitudes and values that are important to them and how they are reflected in their work;
- Obstacles or barriers they had to overcome to get where they are now.
Introduction workshop for Mentees
LoP
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What is the most important thing you learned in the intro workshop for mentees?
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What has been good?
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Introduction workshop for Mentors
Design by Azadeh Sabouri / [email protected]