Solicitor's Diaries - part 4
We continue our mini series with part 4 where Yasmin Khan-Guns shares her reflections on Mentorship & Growth
How has mentorship impacted your career, and how can students find and make the most of mentors?
I never had a formal mentor. I had to work a lot of things out myself, and I relied on line managers, supervisors and legal-friends to bounce ideas off.
The lack of a traditional mentor shows that you can make progress without one. At the same time, I have seen first-hand how powerful mentoring can be:
- A few years ago, I mentored an LPC student through the charity Urban Lawyers. She eventually secured a legal role. The main benefit for her was simply having someone neutral to listen, reflect things back and ask questions. She already knew most of the answers; she just needed space to talk them through.
For students looking for mentors:
- Look sideways as well as upwards.
A mentor does not have to be a partner. A trainee, NQ or even a fellow student a year ahead of you can be incredibly helpful.
- Use structured schemes.
University schemes, diversity initiatives and charities like Urban Lawyers can match you with people.
- Make it easy to help you.
Come to mentoring conversations with specific questions or decisions you are thinking about, rather than just “please mentor me”.
And if you cannot find a formal mentor, create informal ones: a supportive friend, a family friend in another profession, or even a community of peers can play a similar role.
What are some effective ways for students to build and maintain professional relationships?
- Start small and genuine.
After events, send a short thank-you email or LinkedIn message to the speaker, mentioning one specific point you found helpful.
- Stay in light-touch contact.
You do not need to bombard people. Liking their LinkedIn posts, commenting occasionally, or sending a brief update once or twice a year keeps you on their radar.
- Use Instagram and LinkedIn intentionally.
I built a huge amount of my network through my legal Instagram account. Students can do the same: share your journey, interact with others, and over time, those online interactions can lead to real-life connections.
- Offer value where you can.
Even as a student you can recommend an event, share an article someone might find interesting, or volunteer to help with a project.
Professional relationships grow from repeated, respectful, low-pressure interactions – not one dramatic networking conversation.
As a mentor, what are the common mistakes you’ve seen mentees make?
When mentoring students and junior lawyers, a few recurring mistakes come up:
- Treating mentoring as a “quick fix”.
Some mentees arrive hoping a mentor will magically unlock a training contract or a job. A mentor can guide and challenge you, but they cannot do the applications, networking or graft for you.
- Turning up unprepared.
Coming to a session with nothing specific to talk about – no questions, no CV, no applications to review . The best mentees come with clear questions, a draft they want feedback on, or a decision they are struggling with.
- Not being honest.
Sometimes mentees tell mentors what they think we want to hear – exaggerating how many applications they have done or hiding the fact that they are burnt out. Mentoring only really works if you are honest about where you are and what you are finding difficult.
- Not acting on agreed next steps.
A very common pattern is: great conversation, lots of ideas, then… nothing happens afterwards. The most successful mentees are the ones who come back having done the thing they said they would do – even if it did not go perfectly.
- Comparing their journey to everyone else’s.
Some mentees spend most of the session talking about what friends are doing. That comparison energy can drown out the real question: “What is the next right step for me?”
- Letting the relationship fizzle out.
Mentees sometimes feel they are “bothering” the mentor by checking in. In reality, a brief update a few months later – “I followed your advice and here is what happened” – is exactly what most mentors love to hear.
If you can avoid those pitfalls and instead be honest, prepared, and proactive, you will get far more out of any mentoring relationship – whether with a partner, a trainee, or even a peer.
How do you continue to learn and grow in your career, especially in a rapidly changing environment?
I try to build learning into my week rather than treat it as a separate project:
- Legal updates.
I read updates on platforms like LexisNexis and Practical Law, as well as blogs and articles from other family lawyers and chambers. I often turn those updates into posts for my own Instagram, which forces me to understand them well enough to explain them simply.
- Writing and speaking.
I write articles, blogs and give talks and podcasts on family law topics. Having to teach or explain something is one of the best ways to deepen your own understanding.
- Charity and board work.
I am a trustee of a separated parenting programme charity and help with their blog and Instagram. Being involved in something slightly outside my day-to-day practice stretches different skills and perspectives.
So growth for me is a mix of formal reading, creative output, and putting myself in roles that stretch me.
