After a couple years of fruitful cooperation, AIJA is partnering again with ELSA (European Law Students Association) to cooperate on the STEP Programme.
STEP is a trainee exchange programme that enables law students and young lawyers to gain first hand experience of the substantive and procedural law as well as the culture of another country. The Student Trainee Exchange Programme of ELSA offers your office the opportunity to have highly qualified law students from all over Europe as trainees. The traineeship can vary from 2 weeks to 24 months and can take place in any law related area. Participation in STEP is a very simple and effective way of attracting young, internationally minded lawyers from 43 European countries. Having a STEP trainee working in your company is an opportunity for innovation and growth, and a diverse working environment.
AIJA members who have tried it say
“Here at our law firm, we responded to a joint initiative of ELSA and AIJA and accepted a STEP trainee from Germany. Throughout their time here, our colleague helped tremendously with international cases and contributed a great deal of knowledge of more advanced German language amongst our team.” Stepan Holub, Holubová advokáti s.r.o. (Czech Republic)
“Our office has a specialized, niche field of expertise: assisting German-speaking clients in Belgium. ELSA STEP is therefore an excellent partner for us, as it brings us in contact with many native German-speaking students from abroad. On the other hand, the students find an interesting opportunity abroad where there is no language handicap. On the contrary, the can immediately ‘STEP’ in. The selection process goes very smooth and fast, and is almost completely arranged by ELSA itself. We just fill in the forms concerning the requirements and after some time we receive detailed CVs of the candidates, leaving us only the (difficult) task to select. No hassle with separate traineeship agreements etc… everything is standard form, so we can concentrate on working together with the students” David Diris, Kocks & Partners (Belgium)
“We are very pleased and satisfied in participating in ELSA Traineeship Programme and we will do it again. It was an interesting experience for the trainee who had the opportunity to work with us for a period of time and leave the life of a law firm, but also for the people of our firm who benefited from networking with an international student”
Manuela Cavallo, Portolano Cavallo Studio Legale (Italy)
If you are interested in STEP and would like to know more, simply send an email to AIJA at giuseppe.marletta@aija.org and you will be provided with further details. Please do so before 4th November 2015.