Initiatives
SOLEMN
Soaring with Legal Eagles Mentorship Network
Talent is not the issue. Access is.
Hong Kong’s first mentorship programme for ethnically diverse law students, run by the DEIJB Lab at the HKU Faculty of Law. The pilot cohort completed the programme in July 2026.
Hong Kong’s legal profession has a gap it has not yet closed. Ethnically diverse law students in this city are ambitious, capable and committed — and they are navigating a profession that was not built with them in mind.
Underrepresentation in law is not only unfair to those students. It undermines access to justice and the rule of law. SOLEMN pairs students with mentors who have walked this path and are willing to share candidly what it took, and grounds its panels in original research carried out at the DEIJB Lab.
We create space for the conversations that rarely happen in formal settings — the ones that too often lead to premature exclusion, exit or attrition. And we ask the profession to sit with questions it has been avoiding, moving beyond goodwill towards accountability.
What makes SOLEMN different.
Structural, not personal
The research shows the barriers are structural. We do not start from the premise that students need fixing.
Grounded in evidence
Built on Professor Puja Kapai’s research, including her contribution to the Bar Association’s 75th Anniversary Commemorative Volume and an ongoing study of solicitors.
Mentors as sponsors
We ask mentors to advocate and open doors where they can — not only to advise from a distance.
Strengths, not deficits
We centre students’ educational journeys, languages, cultural and family contexts and community ties as assets the profession needs.
How pairing works.
1 · Mentees tell us
Their intended qualification pathway, their areas of legal interest, and the support that would be most valuable at this stage.
2 · Mentors tell us
The guidance they want to offer, their primary practice areas, and their reasons for joining SOLEMN.
3 · We match
On aspiration, practice interest and type of support — so every pairing starts with a real foundation.
The programme at a glance.
2026Programme ran, with a break over the May exam period
The five panels.
These were not polished presentations. They were candid conversations about how the profession really works — and what it might look like if it worked differently.
Pathways, Pivots and Possibilities in Law
Fri 17 April 2026 · 5:00–7:00pm · JSM
Too many students arrive at university already carrying an assumption about which legal paths are closed to them. This panel brought together lawyers who had each taken a different route in — including routes they never planned.
Suhail Bindra, Barrister, Prince’s Chambers · Rachel Hillman Hui, Senior Specialist Legal Editor, Thomson Reuters · Avinash Hotchandani, Head of Legal, BitMEX · Mike Nanwani, Founder & Managing Partner, Nanwani Solicitors LLP · Ben Poon, Barrister, Pegasus Chambers
Behind the Brochure: Recruitment, Reality and Unwritten Rules
Sat 25 April 2026 · 3:30–5:30pm · HKU Faculty of Law
Recruitment presents a version of the profession that is curated and often disconnected from how decisions actually get made. This panel asked lawyers to speak honestly about how hiring really works, and what students from non-traditional backgrounds are rarely told.
Kajal Aswani, Partner, Hugill & Ip · Symone Budhrani, Resourcing Manager, Linklaters Asia · Amrita Hardikar, Talent Acquisition Executive, Korum Legal · Giya Punjabi, Associate, Bowers Law · Anisha Ramanathan, Partner, Withers
Fitting In and Standing Out for the Right Reasons
Tue 9 June 2026 · 6:00–8:00pm · Withers
The profession has long asked people to leave parts of themselves at the door, and asked it louder of ethnically diverse lawyers. It was a conversation about what becomes possible when difference is owned rather than managed.
Vanisha Harjani, Partner, Loeb Smith Attorneys · Monisha Kotwani, Associate, Chaudhry Solicitors · Chelsea Ma, Principal Editor (Law Reports), Thomson Reuters · Anisha Ramanathan, Partner, Withers · Harpradeep Singh, Barrister, Alan Leong SC’s Chambers · Saajandeep Singh, Associate, Patricia Ho & Associates
Lawyering Beyond Hong Kong
Mon 22 June 2026 · 6:30–8:30pm · JSM
Staying can feel like accepting limits; leaving can feel like giving up. This panel reframed that choice — what mobility and cross-jurisdictional practice actually mean for lawyers who bring multilingual, multicultural perspectives the profession increasingly needs.
Min Chia, Assistant Vice President, Hub Strategy, Singapore Economic Development · Rhea Goyal, ESG Associate, The Remedy Project · Rachel Hillman Hui, Senior Specialist Legal Editor, Thomson Reuters · Kapil Kirpalani, Global Chief Compliance Officer, Reinsurance Group of America · Rupen Sha, Special Counsel, GPS Legal LLP
The Lawyers We Become: Purpose, Community and Impact
Mon 29 June 2026 · 6:30–8:30pm · HKU Faculty of Law
The question underneath all the others: what kind of lawyer do you want to become, and what does that have to do with where you come from? The most personal panel of the programme, deliberately so.
Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer, HKU · Celine Dermine, Manager, Tax and Advisory Partners · Rachel Li, Head of Programmes, HELP for Domestic Workers · Azan Marwah, Head of Chambers, Barrister, Pantheon Chambers · Smriti Roy, Consultant, LRQA · Manisha Wijesinghe, Executive Director, HELP for Domestic Workers
The Graduation Circle.
SOLEMN opened with an induction — the moment the community came into existence. It closed with a graduation circle that marks the beginning of a responsibility: to do better, and to measure that year on year.
The first cohort left not only with the connections, insights and experience the programme provides, but with a collective commitment to the students who come after them. SOLEMN is designed to compound. This pilot cohort becomes part of the foundation for everything that follows.