In November 2022, the Alumni Community of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb launched the project “Mentorship in the Legal Profession”, guided by the desire to connect final-year students and those who graduated within the past year with alumni mentors of the Faculty, in order to help students better prepare for the labour market and employment after obtaining their degree.
This pilot project attracted 40 successful candidates, who were paired in mentoring relationships with distinguished mentors, experienced attorneys, corporate lawyers, notaries public, judges, and legal experts working in international institutions and academia. Mentors and candidates have already organised and held their first meetings.
The creators of the project concept stated:
“Our guiding idea was to provide candidates with what our own generations lacked, the opportunity to receive answers, through conversation with a senior colleague, to all the questions they have about life after university. At the same time, we wanted to give mentors first-hand insight into the uncertainties faced by today’s graduates and thus bring them closer to their perspective,” said attorney Ema Menđušić Škugor.
“The idea of assigning students and young lawyers mentors with whom they can have open, informal conversations on numerous topics is an ideal way to create a future generation of legal professionals who, in addition to legal knowledge, will need many other skills and competencies to become complete professionals and remain competitive on the labour market. I hope that candidates will fully utilise the potential of this project and engage in the most open possible dialogue with their mentors, and likewise that mentors will realise how much they themselves can ‘grow’ within the mentoring relationship,” said attorney Natalija Labavić.
“While from the beginning I believed that the response among younger colleagues would be excellent, what truly impressed and surprised me was the enthusiasm of our mentors. We must bear in mind that these are professionals who largely built their careers without such direct access to the experience of senior colleagues. If they have supported the project so selflessly, what can we expect from our candidates when one day they decide to give back to the community what was once a tailwind for them?”
said attorney Iva Mišković.
“This pilot project was prompted by the gap between the growing need of young lawyers for mentoring support and the perceived deficit of high-quality, systematic mentorship in the legal profession. A key contribution to launching the initiative was made by three alumnae—established attorneys whose enthusiasm, experience, and commitment to the Programme’s values also represent the most significant lever for the Programme’s further development and sustainability. We look forward with great anticipation to the feedback from Programme participants and to ideas for improvement!”, stated Associate Professor Ružica Šimić Banović.
