Frequently Asked Questions

What is the BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program?

The BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program is a Black legal mentorship program affiliated with the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.

The goal of the program is to help Black law students develop a support system that will guide them and advise them throughout their legal studies.

In this program, BLSA matches :

  • High school students and undergraduate students wishing to pursue a career in law with first year law students

  • First year law students with second year law students

  • Second year law students with third year law students

  • When possible, third year law students with articling students

Each student-mentor makes a time commitment of two hours per month to meet with their student-mentee. This mentorship program is particularly beneficial for aspiring law school students, first year law students seeking academic support, and upper year law students seeking both career guidance and leadership opportunities.


Why is the BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program necessary?

In 2016, the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion stated the following in their report Diversity by the Numbers: The Legal Profession.

  • Racialized Respondents are under-represented in the [legal] Profession when compared to the Canadian labour force.

  • Racialized Respondents in the Profession are under-represented in Ontario when compared to provincial labour force data. 81.33% of Respondents are Caucasian and 13.90% are Racialized. This representation of Racialized persons is low in comparison to the Canadian labour force, where 18.01% identify as a Visible Minority.

  • The majority of Racialized Respondents identify as Asian (8.04% of Respondents). Next is Mixed Race at 2.20%, Middle Eastern at 1.80%, Black at 0.89%, Latin/Hispanic at 0.60% and Israeli at 0.37%.

In an effort to decrease and ultimately stop these trends, BLSA strives to pair Black law students with one another to support them in their legal studies .

The BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program is open to all Black law students, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ability, religion, age, nationality, or ethnicity.


How does the BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program work?

The Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program is student led and governed by a mentorship model. This model has three integrated components: Student-Lawyer Mentorship, Peer-to-Peer Mentorship, Professional Development & Networking events for participating mentees.

We encourage mentors from the BLSA Student-Lawyer Legal Mentorship program to apply to be a mentor for the BLSA Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship program.


Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship

When matched, the pair commits to meeting for two hours per month and abiding by their agreed upon mentorship guideline that outlines their objectives and expectations of one another.

The mentors and mentees are matched based on the information each participant shares in their respective application form. As such, mentees are encouraged to request a student-mentor who is interested in a similar area of law or comes from a similar background. For example, a student-mentee may request to be matched with a Black upper-year student who is a woman also interested in criminal defence.


What is expected of BLSA Peer Mentors?

Together, the student-mentor and student-mentee will decide how and where to spend their two hours a month. BLSA recommends that the mentor guides their mentee through issues such as law school course selection, obtaining job opportunities in the field, and juggling extracurriculars. 


I’m interested! How do I sign up?

To become a Peer Mentor, please complete this application form.

To become a Peer Mentee, please complete this application form.