CUHK
News Centre

To cope with the rapid change in modern technology, the Faculty of Law of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK Law) has launched an innovative e-mentoring programme to facilitate connections between current students and alumni of CUHK Law around the world. Through this new online platform, law students will be able to receive valuable advice and guidance on career planning, recruitment, and preparation for joining the legal profession. 

Prof. Christopher Gane, Dean of the Faculty of Law thinks highly of the new programme. He said, ‘It has long been part of our mission to build strong and lasting links with Law Faculty alumni and other CUHK graduates now practising law. This groundbreaking e-mentoring programme will provide a platform for law students to establish mentorship with alumni in a secure online environment. It also enables us to stay in touch with past students.” 

The new CUHK Law e-mentoring programme was introduced by Mr. Paul Mitchard QC, the Faculty’s Director of Career Planning and Professionalism. He modified existing alumni networks from Western countries and devised the programme specially for CUHK Law. He explained, ‘Training contracts and pupillages, and ultimately legal jobs these days are being awarded increasingly to those who have served an internship or mini pupillage with the same law firm or chambers. Our students are being obliged at a relatively early stage to make choices which may affect their future career. The new e-mentoring programme will help give them a true advantage in making those choices wisely and efficiently.’ 

CUHK Law graduates include barristers, solicitors, public sector employees such as those serving at the Department of Justice, and a number working in-house or in the commercial field. Alumni who would like to join the e-mentoring programme only need to go through a simple registration process to provide information, including their practice areas and expertise. When students log into the system looking for mentoring assistance, they may reach out to those alumni with the most relevant experience from various professional fields. The identity of alumni remains anonymous to this point. If the alumni decide to accept the contact request, they can then establish contact with the student and reveal their identities. 

Thus, the system is designed to give participants full control, not only over the extent and means of communication but also over what information they wish to provide.  They can decide whether or not to accept a particular mentee and place a cap on the number of mentees they will take on at any one time. 

With CUHK Law alumni located around the world including mainland China, Taiwan, Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere, the e-mentoring programme will have a truly global reach. Its internet platform allows students who want to pursue their careers abroad to tap into the experience of those outside Hong Kong with lightning speed. And it will run parallel with the current traditional mentoring programme which is operates for Bachelor of Laws students through the Sir TL Yang Society.  

Mr. Mitchard encourages all alumni to register with the e-mentoring programme, making themselves available as mentors to provide much-needed guidance to students. The alumni website and e-mentoring programme can be accessed at http://alumni.law.cuhk.edu.hk.