[Reporter]
UOW female law students have had the opportunity to experience life as working lawyers after taking part in the Lucy Law Mentoring Program. The program matches female law students with highly successful women in law where they spend 12 weeks learning on the job.
UOW law student and mentee, Bethany, believes it was an invaluable experience.
[Bethany – student/mentee]
I'm originally from Nowra which is a small town an hour south of Wollongong and my family, none of my family is in the legal profession at all. So, I don't have any contacts and it was really hard to get experience in a small town where it's who you know, not what you know. And so this is a fantastic experience for me to get involved to get some experience since this sort of create a network for myself up here as well.
[Mentor]
I became involved because I think that it's really important that young professional women in university who are looking in a career in law have the opportunity to talk to women who are out there in that workforce in that profession and to understand what it's like and the really experience of being a lawyer rather than just in the books.
[Bethany – student/mentee]
And so a lot of court work. I've written sentencing submissions for criminal matters. Writing affidavits, sitting in on client consultations. So whole breadth of activities.
[Reporter]
23 mentors and mentees participated in the program this year and tonight the UOW law students will speak about their experiences and how it will impact their future careers.
[Jessica – student/mentee]
Essentially we've just got to give a couple of minutes presentation on my experience of the program. So, essentially I was with Belinda Baker from the Crown Solicitor's office in Sydney. I essentially went to the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Coroner's Court a couple of times. I got to meet judges, Coroner's, senior counsel, all kinds of people and I found it really, really helpful. It was really interesting.
[Mentor]
Lots of fun working with as… I met with as a mentor because it was really nice to be involved with students and to see their enthusiasm and to remember that we had that enthusiasm as well as students.
[Jessica – student/mentee]
It's an invaluable experience. And you're getting to meet and work with really accomplished people. And the more information you can get about your career aspirations, the better.
[Reporter]
Shannon Kelleher UOW TV
