Law Society NSW

Howard has been a member of the Law Society of NSW for many years and has previously sat on the Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Public Law Committee, the Human Rights Committee and the Government Lawyers Committee.

Howard is strongly committed to mentoring young and more junior lawyers and has served as a mentor on the Young Lawyers Mentoring Program and has actively promoted the benefits of mentoring in relation to nurturing and growing the legal profession in NSW.

Making time for mentoring pays off

Published in the Law Society Journal, December 2012, by Anne Susskind

Dr Howard Bell has always liked being a mentor. Before signing up for the NSW Young Lawyers Mentoring Program last year, he volunteered in a similar staff mentoring program at his workplace, WorkCover, and has done mentoring through community organisations and universities, because, as he says, it is an “honour and a privilege” to play a “small but significant” role in helping promising young people with their professional development.

Bell describes himself as “mid-career, even older, with some grey hairs”. Dealing with younger people, he says, is invigorating.

Both the women he’s mentored this year are destined for great things, he believes. Even though time frames in their lives are tight, and extra-curricular pursuits can be mentally, emotionally and spiritually challenging, they are determined to make a difference, he told LSJ. “They are not just leading lights and excellent in the practice of law, but are both very committed and involved in postgraduate pursuits, community organisations and pro bono activities.”

Bell, who has eight grandchildren, says mentoring is in many respects closely aligned with parenting and grandparenting. “There’s the added bonus that you offer them a new, different perspective to that of their parents, who they’ve had all their lives. It’s also being able to provide them with independent, non-judgemental feedback and help them look above and beyond their immediate roles and practice environments at the broader mosaic, with an older practitioner with no direct influence on their day-to-day work or career. You can offer insight into their working lives, but are also free to work with them to help them pursue their dreams.”

From time to time, Bell says he will “robustly encourage” mentees to rethink particular issues, with constructive comment, and in some cases it’s even about “the cultivation of new mind-sets”.

Communications are by way of chats over coffee, email, phone and text messages.

Bell is also on the Law Society’s Human Rights Committee and on the NSW regional board of Amnesty International, is in the Army Reserve and volunteers at the St Vincent de Paul shop in Gosford, as well as with Cana Communities, and organisation providing shelters and support for homeless people.

Impartial Advice

The fan club is mutual. Nivedha Thiru, who works at DLA Piper in commercial litigation, and does pro bono for the International Crimes Evidence Project and a sustainable development NGO, Palmera Projects, says Bell is “unique, generous and giving”.

The Young Lawyers mentoring program, she says, is good because it’s very precise, and asks detailed questions about your goals and interest, and then matches you up to someone suitably aligned.

It is, she says, helpful to have someone like Bell around, with years of experience. He provided advice not just on being a lawyer, but broader life advice, both short and long term.

“Sometimes when you’re surrounded by so much opportunity, it’s hard to see what you should do with it, and where to go from there. There is something more objective about someone impartial out of your own firm, and completely removed from the peer review process. It’s been like finding a trusted friend, who’s also a lawyer.”

Every couple of months, Bell and Thiru catch up over coffee. Her recurring issue, Thiru says, is that she feels she’s taken on too many commitments and can’t balance it all. Usually when they meet, things are reaching a critical point: “After every meeting, no matter how stressed out, worried or anxious about my work I am, I always think there are better ways to look at life, just from listening to him talk".”

Bell conveys “confidence and enthusiasm, and belief in my potential, which is very encouraging for me. He likes to talk, but so do I. It’s very clear he’s there for me. Howard is a great listener, and not judgemental and validates your experience, a really nice man. It’s a generous thing to do and I’m glad this program exists.

“I want to encourage more young lawyers to get involved. It’s easy for people to get caught in daily work and keep their heads down, and, before you know it, another year has passed and you may not have progressed, or taken time to look at how you’re tracking. A meeting with your mentor regularly allows you to do that.”

Sky’s the limit

Lauren Dancer, who moved to Sydney from Brisbane at the start of 2011 to begin a graduate program and has since taken a leave of absence from Ashurst to do a Bachelor of Civil Laws at the University of Oxford, says Bell helped her with both transitions.

“It’s a very powerful thing to be able to create a relationship with a lawyer further along their career path than you are. It helps you to feel more engaged with your profession. Many large law firms now offer in-house mentoring programs which can be helpful - but having a mentor from outside of your workplace is especially valuable as you are able to have a very open and relaxed relationship. Howard helped me to build a clearer picture of the kind of lawyer I wanted to be.”

Bell, she says, is a uniquely encouraging and positive person. When she met him, having just moved and taken up a new job in a new city, she was at a busy and stressful time in her career, and he offered supportive advice about managing her workload and career.

He also encouraged her to set new goals and was “a sky’s the limit kind of guy. A lot of people talk to you about what’s likely, what’s realistic. He told me, ‘just go for it, why not?’”

Throughout her legal studies and early career, Dancer said, she had always benefited from speaking to students and lawyers a few years ahead of her and been surprised and pleased to discover how willing they were to help when asked, be it to share wisdom or provide a reference.

Despite law having the reputation of being competitive, she’s found that help begets help, and support is always available if you ask for it.