Call for Mentors

The educational objectives of the Company are administered by our Charitable Trust, and one of the Trust's means of advancing education is through its Apprentice Scheme. The purpose of this Scheme is to provide financial assistance and mentoring support to students engaged in learning the skills of an arbitrator, or the skills of other types of ADR practitioner. The Scheme is intended for anyone below the grade of Chartered Arbitrator, who is attempting to attain that qualification, or something similar, and mentoring support, more so than financial assistance, is crucial to its successful operation.

As many of you are already well aware, financial assistance for Apprentices is available in the form of grants and/or interest-free loans, depending on circumstances, for the purchase of reference books, contributions towards course fees and examination costs, and such other costs as are properly incurred in the student's education. This financial assistance is of course funded by you, the Freemen and Liverymen of the Company, through your regular and generous contributions to the Charitable Trust, for which the Trustees are extremely grateful. However, not all applicants for Apprenticeship are in need of financial assistance, and those who are not generally apply simply for the mentoring support that the Scheme provides.

Successful applicants for Apprenticeship are each assigned a Mentor, who assists the student to set and achieve his or her educational and career goals as a dispute resolver, and is available to offer more general support and advice on related matters if requested to do so. It is of course up to the Apprentice to take the initiative in this relationship by seeking such guidance and advice as he or she may require from time to time, and by making quarterly reports of progress. Thus the Mentor 's role is largely in response the particular Student's need. It is however important that the Mentor 's field of expertise and experience should be as close as possible to the Apprentice's field of study and proposed career path, and achieving an appropriate match can at times be difficult. This has highlighted our current need to widen the range of expertise within our existing pool of Mentors, and also increase the number of Members willing to act as Mentors to cater for a growing list of applicants for Apprenticeship, which is where you, the Members, come in.

We urgently need to identify experienced arbitrators, adjudicators and/or mediators from within the Company, whether practicing or retired, who are willing to act as Mentors on a pro-bono basis to assist and encourage our prospective Students. Mentoring fulfils one of the primary objectives of the Company, which is the sharing of information on arbitration and related forms of dispute resolution. So if the thought of giving a Student benefit of your arbitral and/or mediation skills and experience appeals to you, and if you would be willing to participate in this worthwhile and rewarding activity, I should be delighted to hear from you, either directly at derek@layngross.com, or via the Clerk.

Assistant Derek Ross
Chairman of Students