Samuel Clague, founder and CEO of The Stephen James Partnership, is launching Qualified Black Lawyers Matter, a digital mentoring platform to boost Black representation in the legal sector.
What is the digital mentoring scheme?
Barbadian and English founder Clague runs The Stephen James Partnership, the UK’s only Black-owned legal recruitment company.
The new mentoring platform will connect senior decision-makers in law firms and in-house legal teams to qualified Black lawyers at another organization.
It builds on the firm’s previous mentoring scheme, “Endeavour,” which has reportedly connected more than 200 senior legal professionals with Black aspiring lawyers.
The scheme aims to help firms retain and develop Black lawyers and understand their obstacles.
Claugue has said he expects 98% of the mentors will not be Black, but he believes firms have much to learn by participating.
“A 60-year-old white heterosexual partner told us that his eyes were opened by meeting someone he may not have come across before,” he told Legal Futures.
“Firms will be able to learn by doing this. They will be able to understand the challenges facing Black lawyers and celebrate their successes.”
Why do they need a mentoring program?
According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Black lawyers make up 3% of lawyers which has risen only 1% since 2014.
While many firms already have internal mentoring programs, Clague told The Law Society Gazette that participants only sometimes feel they can speak freely because it might get back to someone who knows someone. Clague’s new platform aims to avoid this problem by providing external mentoring.
Research conducted by the recruitment firm with current mentors found that 87% were more proactively involved in their employer’s Diversity and Inclusion initiatives since starting mentorship.
Mentees do not have to pay a fee, but the mentors do. Still, most mentors have praised the scheme, as one said the experience has “broadened their outlook on the obstacles that Black lawyers face,” Legal Futures reported.
Having the mentoring take place online avoids people having to travel to meet and enables mentors to be based anywhere in the world.
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