Peer Volunteer Program

LIANS through its LAP Committee is working to reestablish the peer volunteer program.

Though similar to and working alongside our Mentorship program (discussed below), the focus of the peer volunteer program is different. For the peer volunteer program, the focus is on personal issues a lawyer may be experiencing versus the mentorship program where the focus is on young lawyers and legal skills.

Peer volunteers are a group of senior lawyers who provide support, encouragement and assistance to members of the profession. And very often, the peer volunteer is a person who has experienced and worked through their own challenging personal situations.

Peer volunteers are not counsellors. What they are is a peer from within the profession who a lawyer can talk to about personal issues they are experiencing. Peer volunteers can also provide a confidential link between a lawyer seeking help and the appropriate help or helper.

But to reestablish this program we need volunteers from the profession.

If you have more than ten years at the bar, have worked through personal challenges, have a desire to help your peers based on those personal experiences, are nonjudgmental and empathetic, we would like to hear from you.

If you are interested in volunteering to be a Peer Volunteer, please contact Lawrence Rubin at lrubin@lians.ca

LIANS Mentorship Program

As mentioned above, our mentorship program is focused on assisting young lawyers with their professional development.

If you have a minimum of nine years of practice experience and are interested in volunteering a bit of your time to provide support and guidance to young lawyer, we would like to hear from you.

We welcome as mentors lawyers from all backgrounds, practices and areas of the province.

Advantages of being a mentor:

  • renew and revitalize your own practice and strategies;
  • stay current with issues and developments in the next generation of professionals;
  • expand your own personal network.

The Mentorship Program offers the following advantages and opportunities:

  • matching based on the areas of interest and criteria identified by both mentor and mentee
  • a mentorship plan created by you and your match, to identify your areas of focus and goals for the upcoming year

And we do have a need for mentors.

At this time, we currently have 96 mentors on our panel and 142 mentees in the program. But we have a waiting list of 14 potential mentees.

So, if you are interested in participating in the Mentorship Program and giving a little or your time back to our profession, please visit: http://www.lians.ca/rpm/mentorship_program/.

In order to participate, fill out the Mentorship Program Application Form online, or download the fillable PDF form and save to your desktop then forward to Cynthia Nield, LIANS’ Database and Information Officer.