At a recent gathering of Western Sydney-based practitioners, Supreme Court Justice Dina Yehia reflected on the value of investing time and energy into not just mentoring but also sponsoring the next generation of lawyers.
On 6 November, the Parramatta & District Law Society held its Annual Dinner, which brought together local practitioners, guests, law school heads, and members of the judiciary and Parliament against the backdrop of CommBank Stadium in Parramatta, Western Sydney.
Headlining the event was the Honourable Justice Dina Yehia of the Supreme Court of NSW (pictured), who spoke about the importance of both mentorship and sponsorship for practitioners.
Justice Yehia, the first Supreme Court judge of Greek and Egyptian descent, spoke about how mentoring can be a hugely rewarding and impactful experience for both the mentor and mentee, and detailed her own experiences with informal mentors when she was a junior solicitor in western NSW.
What Her Honour learnt from those mentors (one a non-lawyer, the other a principal solicitor) is that mentoring does not mean making everybody else the same as you are.
“It’s not about creating people in your own image; it’s about supporting and guiding, but also about recognising what might be unique qualities or differences that enhance that person’s capacity to do the work and to engage with their clients,” Yehia J said.
Mentorship and sponsorship, Her Honour continued, are separate, but overlapping concepts: “Sponsorship is harder to engage in, I think, because it involves the sponsor making more of an effort,” she said, adding that it is an act that the profession needs more of.
“For me, the difference between those two concepts is that while mentoring provides guidance and advice, usually from a senior practitioner to a junior practitioner, sponsorship requires a senior practitioner or somebody in a position of leadership to actively use their influence to advocate for and advance someone who is in a junior role,” Yehia J said.
“Now, in raising this difference, I do not mean to downplay the importance of mentors. Sharing your knowledge and experience in helping another to navigate their way in the profession is extremely important. But actively championing another by enabling them to take on high-visibility work and key roles creates very tangible career-advancing opportunities.”
“I encourage anyone who is in a senior leadership role to think about that difference, and to invest the time and energy not only into mentoring, but sponsoring junior solicitors.”
This necessarily includes, Yehia J stressed, “not just the ones that look like you, but those from diverse backgrounds”.
Mentoring and sponsoring practitioners from diverse backgrounds is important in ensuring diversity in its myriad forms across the profession, Her Honour continued.
Yehia J said she has witnessed substantial improvement over the last 35 years (since her admission) in creating a more diverse legal cohort in Australia, but added that the number of diverse practitioners “reduce[s] the higher we get up the professional hierarchy”.
Notwithstanding the very real achievements that have been made and the efforts that continue to be made in promoting diversity and inclusion across the profession, Her Honour said there remains much work to be done.
“Part of that work, I believe, is to gain a real understanding of how unconscious bias works, recognising how it may affect the way in which we approach others and the way in which we make decisions, formulating strategies to check ourselves, and implementing strategies to address the adverse impact of unconscious bias,” Yehia J said.
“Even those of us who come from diverse backgrounds and have experienced the challenges that sometimes present as a consequence can be influenced in our decision making by implicit bias and prejudice. Education, honest discourse, and fearless action are required to combat unconscious bias.”
Reflecting on the event, Parramatta & District Law Society president Rebecca Hegarty – a partner at Bartier Perry – said the role that regional law societies play is an “important one”.
“We support the profession by providing connection, continuing legal education and through advocacy,” she said.
“Events such as the Dinner and annual Red Mass continue to promote collegiality and tradition to our local community.”
Yehia J’s speech, Hegarty continued, served as a reminder that respecting diversity and inclusion is “important in creating a respectful and robust profession”.
“Her Honour highlighted the differences between being a sponsor and a mentor, including that the role is not to make another in their own image but to guide and support,” she said.
Jerome Doraisamy is the managing editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in New South Wales, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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