Law Society Mentorship Scheme: Perspectives from Our Mentors
We speak with Kuah Boon Theng, SC, and Sarita Masir on their experiences as mentors with the Law Society Mentorship Scheme. We learn from them how the mentorship scheme is a two-way bridge for both mentors and mentees, with both parties learning from each other.
If you are interested to learn about the Law Society’s mentorship programme, click here or contact our Membership department at [email protected]. The next intake for the mentorship programme is in 2026.
Kuah Boon Theng, SC, Managing Director, Legal Clinic LLC
What made you sign up to be a mentor?
I first officially became a mentor, not because I had signed up to be one, but because a young practitioner had reached out to the Law Society sometime in 2019 asking to be assigned a mentor, and I was asked if I would be willing to reach out to her. This was well before the current Mentorship scheme was in place.
The mentee has since left practice for in-house positions, but we have remained friends and I have continued to keep in touch with her, follow up on her progress and provide advice when she needs it. I even make it a point to drop off Christmas treats and presents for her family every year.
The experience made me realise that some lawyers may not want to be limited to asking their own colleagues or peers for help and advice when they face challenges, and they value the fact that they can talk to someone else. What has encouraged me the most is the fact that my first mentee is now more comfortable reaching out to others for advice and help. She has built a network of friends who are there to encourage and support her.
This is why when the Law Society started the present Mentorship scheme, I did not hesitate to say yes when I was asked if I was prepared to be paired up with a mentee.
This is now my third year on the scheme.
What was your experience like?
I can honestly say that every mentee I have met has been a joy to get to know. I realise that they sign up to ask for a mentor because they are genuinely curious to learn from others. It also means that they are motivated to do well and live up to their true potential. Each person has their own personality and perspective on legal practice and what their priorities are. In getting to know them, I have also learnt so much from them.
For those of us who have been in practice for decades, we sometimes fall into the pattern of always looking at things through the lens of our own early experiences. Younger lawyers today have grown up in a different time. Many have spent a significant part of their careers shaped by the changes that came about during the Covid pandemic, and that in itself has brought about its own share of challenges. In my interactions with mentees, I never assume that they “have it easy” or lack the motivation to succeed, because that is simply not true. I do not pretend to know more than they do, nor do I assume that they have the very same aspirations or priorities that my contemporaries and I may have had at the same stage of our careers. I try to keep an open mind and ask myself how I can be a source of encouragement and support to them.
The time that I have committed to being on the scheme has been very manageable. It is up to the mentor and mentee to figure out what works for them in terms of frequency of contact and most convenient mode of communication. Having said that, the mentorship relationship shouldn’t just be about seeking help or advice when the mentee has a problem or question. It is nice to simply catch up for coffee or a meal once in a while, and check in with each other.
What was your key takeaway from participating in the Mentorship Scheme?
The main thing I learned was how important it is to have good mentors in the legal profession, and how I wish there were more mentorship schemes around when I started practice. I was fortunate to begin my career in a firm where there were many role models I could look up to and many peers I could approach for help. But having access to someone who is not from your workplace can be very helpful. We should make it easy for those who are seeking a mentor to be paired up with one.
I also quickly realised that a mentorship relationship is not a one-way street. The mentor stands to benefit as much as the mentee. Meeting younger lawyers and understanding their concerns, experience and ambitions, has given me a better insight into the different challenges faced by lawyers today. I hope it has made me more empathetic and understanding in appreciating the challenges faced by my younger colleagues.
In my view, more of us from the senior bar should be invested in efforts to retain talent within our profession and promote longevity in practice. It is not just about professional development but being interested in the personal well-being of our lawyers and helping to promote the right values and culture within the profession.
Has the experience changed your perspective or helped you grow as a lawyer or person?
I would like to think so. Ours is a very stressful profession, and there are many things we are left to navigate on our own that we cannot learn from law school. We go through different seasons in our lives where we worry and fret over different things. Sometimes it is easy to think that we have it all figured out, but when we honestly reflect on all the help and support we ourselves have received along the way, we have to be grateful to have navigated the early years and found a way to stay productive in practice and contribute meaningfully to the profession.
Being a lawyer is hard work, and so much is expected from us. Talking to mentees has made me appreciate the challenges that lawyers face today as a result of new work arrangements, the high expectations that lawyers set for themselves, and coping with the fast pace of practice today when it feels like we are constantly at the receiving end of work demands. We should all do our best to support each other.
Being a mentor has made me more aware that each person’s journey within the legal profession is different, and not everyone’s priorities are the same. I do hope that it makes me a more empathetic person, one who is more mindful of the needs of others.
Sarita Misir, AVP, Group Legal, Sembcorp
Q: What made you sign up to be a mentor?
I have benefited tremendously in my career from someone senior taking an interest in my growth, whether by opening doors or making introductions or by giving me stretch assignments. These opportunities may not have been through any structured or formal mentorship programme, but they are no less impactful and rewarding.
As I grew in my career, I found myself naturally being in a similar position to support and invest in the growth of my team, especially for the more junior members. It just made sense to do so – to share your own experiences and perspectives, to show that you also faced challenges and how you dealt with them, to show how you took up opportunities even if (or perhaps especially if, in certain cases) they take you out of your comfort zone – if you want to retain promising and talented young lawyers. It has been and continues to be very heartening for me to see the young lawyers I have worked with do so well in their careers. Some of them even become mentors themselves (a “pay-it-forward” request that I always make to my mentees)! I consider myself extremely fortunate that many of them continue to keep in contact and, dare I say, even consider me a friend.
When the opportunity came up to volunteer with the Law Society Mentorship Scheme, it was really a “no-brainer” natural extension of what I was already doing for years, only now with a more formal-sounding label and under the auspices of the Law Society. I saw it as a chance to continue doing what I enjoy, with the added advantage of being paired with someone outside the usual circle of folks I work or interact with more regularly on a day-to-day basis.
Q: What was your experience like?
It’s been such a blast! The Working Group does an excellent job in fixing the mentor-mentee pairings, a task made infinitely more complicated with the sheer number, backgrounds and experiences of mentors and mentees involved.
My mentee, Sylvester, and I hit it off from the get-go during our first meeting, over lunch. Every mentee (and mentor, for that matter) has their own unique lived experience, background, aspirations and style. Sylvester’s was to come to the meeting refreshingly and fully prepared with a long list of questions. My role was to help him curate this list, sometimes reading between the lines and asking questions to get to the unspoken issues, other times by sharing my own experiences and perspectives, and work with him to co-create some practical actions, behaviours and ways of reframing thoughts, in a collaborative, supportive and impactful space.
We continued to meet up in person as regularly as we could over the course of the Mentorship Scheme. Each time we met, I could see Sylvester getting more confident and focused in his conversations. He put effort into trying out the practical actions and behaviours that we co-developed (and refined) in his work and it clearly showed. I couldn’t be prouder of him and all that he has achieved over the past months since we first met.
As an added bonus and testament to how well we got along, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to Sylvester’s wedding reception, where I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful decorations (edible table centrepieces!), delicious food and excellent conversations (with both old and new friends)! Sylvester and I are still in contact, despite the official end of our cycle of the Mentorship Scheme.
Q: What was your key takeaway from participating in the Mentorship Scheme?
For me, it is that everyone’s experience is valid and should be supported. Law is and will remain a gruelling profession. No matter what your PQE is, we can all benefit from a little more support and kindness. That is why programmes like the Mentorship Scheme are so important, by giving an official platform for lawyers across age categories, firms and practice areas to connect and support each other.
Support is not one-way top-down mentoring, but it is also reverse bottom-up mentoring. Senior lawyers may have more experience by virtue of number of years in the profession, but younger lawyers have more experience in the new ways of working (not always sitting at a desk in the office), the struggle to balance professional and personal space in today’s “always-on” culture, the increasing and expected use of technology (and newer technologies like AI), and the ever increasing expectations of clients and bosses. Everyone can learn and benefit from the experiences of others.
I would strongly encourage lawyers to sign up with and make use of the Mentorship Scheme, whether as mentor or mentee. Continuing with my point on reverse mentoring, I would also highlight that you are neither too young to be a mentor nor too old to be a mentee.
Q: Has the experience changed your perspective or helped you grow as a lawyer or person?
I have had juniors who worked with me previously tell me I am more mellow now – so I certainly hope so! I have realised that the challenges and issues facing younger lawyers are really “same same but different” from what I have faced in my own career. I tell my mentees that sometimes all we are trying to do is just survive through the day – and that is perfectly alright!
Mentoring means listening and being supportive and non-judgmental, putting aside your inner voice that may be tempted to be judgy. Doing this for others means that I have also inevitably learnt to not be so hard on myself sometimes – the job is already demanding enough, no need to add extra (unnecessary) stress, especially for situations that you have no control over!
Being mentored and mentoring has also shifted my perspective by helping me appreciate that there are always learnings to take from the actions and behaviours of others – what I call my “good, bad and ugly lesson system”. It means always taking learnings from the actions and behaviours of others. Good actions and behaviours should be internalised, adapted and emulated. Bad ones should be discarded. Ugly actions and behaviours (for example, bullying, gossiping at work, harassment, taking credit for the work of others, etc.) should be filed into the “Do Not Become This Person” part of your memory as a cautionary tale on what not to say or do and how not to behave. I like to think of this system as my small but steady contribution to fostering a better culture in our profession.
