Participation in all of the Law Society of Alberta’s mentorship programs is free. 

The Mentorship Rocket Platform is open for bookings from Sept. 16 to April 30 each year. Matches for Mentor Connect and Indigenous Mentorship Program can run outside of these dates, but the first meeting must take place within the program year. 

Lawyers, students-at-law and those with completed law degrees who intend to pursue their legal career in Alberta are eligible to participate as mentees. Internationally Trained Lawyers do not have to have completed their National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) certification to be eligible to participate. Law students are only eligible to participate in Indigenous Mentorship Program.  

Lawyers who have practised at least five years, including inactive and retired lawyers, are eligible to participate as mentors. A mentor’s years of experience in other provinces or jurisdictions (not just Alberta) count toward the five-year requirement.  

Please note that mentor eligibility may be impacted if you have any past or current claims with the Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association (ALIA) or disciplinary proceedings with the Law Society. 

New participants need to register as a mentor or register as a mentee through the law society website. Once registered, you will receive an email from the mentorship team with further instructions on how to access the platform and participate in the programs.

For Mentor Connect and the Indigenous Mentorship Program, we recommend that matches meet once a month. Ultimately, the frequency and duration of meetings are up to mentors and mentees to decide. It is also up to matches to decide when and where they meet, whether that be in-person or virtually. The objective is to create a relationship that works for both the mentor and mentee.  

Mentor Express matches should be one-time, one-hour meetings. Mentors will have up to twelve meeting dates available for different mentees to book over the course of the program year. Mentees can book as many meetings with as many different mentors as they want.  

Mentors are limited to participating in one program at a time, meaning they can only participate in either Mentor Express, Mentor Connect or the Indigenous Mentorship Program. This restriction is due to limitations of the Mentorship Rocket platform.  
 
Mentees can participate in multiple programs simultaneously. 

No. We recommend in-person mentorship sessions whenever possible, but they aren’t always feasible or necessary. We encourage you to meet however is convenient for you. A benefit to virtual meetings is that you can meet with mentors located in other cities. 

Yes. There is nothing preventing you from participating in the programs even though you practice and live elsewhere, as meetings can be arranged virtually. This applies to both mentors and mentees. In fact, your work and living experiences elsewhere could make you a more interesting person for someone considering their professional options. 

The Law Society does not match mentors and mentees. Mentees are responsible for self-matching with mentors of their chosen program(s) through the Mentor Gallery. This allows mentees to choose mentors who resonate with them and with what they hope to get out of a mentoring relationship.  

After a mentee selects a mentor and a meeting date on the Mentor Gallery, it is up to the mentee to reach out to their mentor to introduce themselves and discuss how and when they will get together. The Law Society’s mentorship team is not involved in scheduling meetings. 

If anyone needs to reschedule a meeting, they should contact their match directly to make alternative arrangements. It is not necessary to let the Mentorship team know about any rescheduled meetings. 

The goal of Mentor Express is to facilitate one–time meetings between multiple mentors and mentees. If both of you are willing, you are more than welcome to arrange additional meetings outside of the program. If you are seeking a longer term relationship, you may want to consider Mentor Connect or if applicable, the Indigenous Mentorship Program.  

If a preferred mentor does not have any meeting availability, this means they have already been matched. In this case, we ask that you respect the mentor’s availability and seek another mentor.  

Yes. If the mentor is participating in Mentor Express, they can have up to twelve meetings with different mentees. If the mentor is participating in Mentor Connect or the Indigenous Mentorship Program, they will have one mentee. Due to the restrictions of the Mentorship Rocket platform, mentors can only participate in one program at a time.  

Mentees can participate in multiple programs simultaneously, which means they are not limited to having just one mentor. For instance, a mentee can sign up for Mentor Express and have multiple one-hour meetings with different mentors and can also have a more long–term relationship with a single mentor through Mentor Connect or the Indigenous Mentorship Program.  

Mentors should not provide professional advice on legal matters. For substantive legal issues, mentors can direct mentees to contact the Practice Advisors or the Law Society’s AdvisorLink service. For personal issues, they can receive confidential support by contacting the ASSIST program. 

No, our mentorship programs are not an appropriate avenue for asking for a job. Mentees can discuss job search strategies, alternate career paths, resume building and interview skills, but should not ask mentors for a job or expect a mentor to help them look for one. 

The provisions of the Code of Conduct will always apply. Take care to avoid disclosing confidential information and be aware of the potential for conflicts of interest. There is no solicitor-client privilege for communications between a mentor and mentee.  

Mentors are obligated to report serious ethical violations of the Code of Conduct that raise a substantial question about an individual’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer. Rules 3.3(3) to 3.3(7) and 7.1(3) of the Code of Conduct provide guidance on this matter. When in doubt, you are encouraged to contact the Office of the Practice Advisor at the Law Society of Alberta for confidential assistance. 

The Law Society uses a third-party company, Mentorship Rocket, to host and facilitate our mentorship programs. The online platform, which features a Mentor Gallery, now serves as the central hub for all three programs, making it a one-stop-shop for participants. 

Mentorship Rocket will have access to mentor/mentee personal information including name, email address and mentor/mentee profile information to perform program-related tasks on our behalf. Mentorship Rocket is obligated not to disclose or use mentor/mentee personal information for any other purpose. Mentorship Rocket has their own Privacy Policy. The Law Society does not assume any liability or responsibility for the content and activities of their website.  

The Mentorship Rocket platform will support the Mentorship department by automating some of the more time-consuming tasks related to the programs, such as giving mentees the ability to match themselves through the Mentor Gallery.  

The platform provides mentees with the ability to choose their own mentors, which will allow for more satisfying matches and provide mentees with a sense of ‘ownership’ of their mentorship journey.  

Our prior experience with the platform has demonstrated how easily and efficiently matches can be made. This is an improvement to our previous process of our mentorship team making matches, which was limited due to time and operational constraints. By transferring the responsibility of matching to the mentees themselves, more matches can be made.  

Mentorship is beneficial for any new professionals starting their careers. With a wide range of practice settings and areas of law, this is particularly meaningful for lawyers. 

As a new lawyer, mentoring relationships can encourage and empower your professional development, help you identify and achieve career goals, and increase your confidence. By engaging in a mentoring relationship, you can identify gaps in your knowledge or skills and address them early in your career. 

Law school focuses on substantive law issues and the legal system, but practical knowledge such as how to run a practice, build a reputation and manage client relationships comes from experience. A mentoring relationship can help leverage the experience of others to develop key competencies and help you choose between the various career paths available to you. 

I have been practicing for several years. Can I still benefit from being a mentee?
Mentorship can benefit a lawyer at any stage of their career. Particularly, if: 

• You have moved into a new practice area; 
• You are in the beginning stages of starting your own practice;  
• You are changing your practice setting; or,  
• You have not experienced an effective mentor relationship.  

During your practice, you have gained hard-won experience and insight into how best to deal with clients, other lawyers and judges. You have developed office systems that work and may have seen others that do not. You know the importance of organization and developing a strategy, whether it involves running a trial, settlement negotiations or closing a deal. Your successes and failures have taught you lessons that might benefit others if you are willing to share. 

Mentees, before any meeting, ask yourself why you are choosing a particular mentor. Is it something in their work history that caught your attention? Is the mentor in a practice area or work environment that you are considering for yourself? Maybe the mentor has experienced something in their personal history that you find to be a challenge as well. 

There is no fixed agenda or questions that you are required to address. The key is to talk about the things that matter most to you. 

For more ideas on what to talk about, view the Discussion Topics for Mentors and Mentees resource.