Multilateral internship programme for lawyers
- Details
- Published: November 29, 2021
Together with the German Federal Bar (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer) and the German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltverein), IRZ has been running an annual multilateral internship programme in the German language for lawyers since 1994. After the programme was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it went ahead this year as a face-to-face event from 24 September to 28 October 2021.
A full EU-compliant vaccine certificate was required for attendance at the event. Since not all the 15 participants who had been due to take part in the 2020 internship programme were able to fulfil this requirement (amongst other reasons), only a small group of six lawyers from five countries attended the internship programme.
The eight-day introductory seminar in Bonn at the start of the programme covered the German professional law for lawyers, which were presented to the participants by members from the German Federal Bar and the German Bar Association, as well as selected topics concerning German and European civil and commercial law, which were presented by speakers from the legal profession.
Afterwards, the participants spent three and a half weeks in law firms, where they were able to deepen their knowledge of German law in a practical way and gain an insight into the activities and working methods of their German colleagues. Finally, a one-day evaluation seminar took place in Bonn, which was dedicated to the written evaluation of the IRZ programme, as well as the oral exchange of experiences between the participants.
No cuts were made to the usual duration of the internship programme and its structure, even under the prevailing pandemic conditions. In order to maximise the professional benefit of the internship programme for the participants, it was important to maintain the link between theory and practice that characterises the internship programme, even under the current conditions. The participants were also provided with the necessary time frame to enable an intensive professional exchange among themselves and with the lawyers of their host law firms.
Special emphasis is always placed on these aspects when planning and implementing the internship programme. This is the only way of establishing the basis for achieving the desired long-term goal of the internship programme, which is to promote cooperation between lawyers in different countries.