If you are looking to strenghten your relationships with colleagues abroad, and remote meetings don't always do the trick, why not go for a working visit and become part of the team for a few days? Especially for our young lawyers under 40, Eurojuris and Jurismus offer the JuMP experience: An exchange program with another member law firm for 2-3 days or more which is partially funded by our network.
Maximilian Juncker from Tyskret Sagawe & Klages "jumped" to IDEAL Advokatfirma in Odense last year - now IDEAL returned the visit to their temporary team member and came to Hamburg with a delegation of seven. Read all about Max' stay in Denmark:
"In June, I had the opportunity to spend one working week at IDEAL Advokatsfirma’s office in Odense, Denmark.
After having worked together quite closely with colleagues from this firm on several Danish-German cases, I wanted to go and see, how the everyday working routine was in a Danish law firm. After all, Danish companies are well known for their good working spirit and with Claus Heide Andersen, I knew there to be at least one Jurismus colleague, with whom I had already spent good times at Jurismus congresses.
Spending time in Denmark offered also the natural opportunity to improve my language skills, as I have been learning Danish on the job for the past four years working with many Denmark-based clients.
And, last but not least, the prospect of spending a week in the city of Odense in June seemed quite attractive.
Luckily, Claus and his colleagues agreed to have me for the week and set up a desk in their office for me where I could put up my laptop (which by now is basically all that is needed). For the full working week, I became part of IDEAL´s team. Whilst I mainly worked on my own cases and e-mails – just from somewhere else than Hamburg – I was also warmly welcomed into the everyday office routine. From joint lunch breaks and internal training sessions for the legal staff to after-work drinks on Friday night – I would just go along as part of the office. If Covid had allowed it, I would also have had the opportunity to attend a Court hearing.
Personally, I really enjoyed the experience of working in a slightly larger law firm than I was used to and learned a lot about Danish working culture but also the legal training system for lawyers-to-be, which proved to be totally different from my own education history in Germany.
My stay gave me the opportunity to get the best of both worlds: getting my own work done and experiencing a different form of working environment. I also went to meet clients in the area, I had not met in person before – working with international clients has the natural disadvantage that you do not always get a chance to meet the people you are working with or for, so this was also a very nice change.
In the evenings I switched from being a lawyer working remotely to being a tourist in Odense. This shift in roles made the week entirely special Odense is really worth a visit. As I stayed in a small hotel for the nights, I had none of my usual tasks to hurry to at night, but could enjoy the city.
Even though it only was a few days, I took a lot from it – good memories from a nice summer city trip, a strengthened relationship to Jurismus colleagues as well as clients and quite some inspiration on how to change my everyday working routine.
“Working from anywhere” has become quite popular over the last two years, but it does not always have to be a beach in some different part of the world. Working out of another Eurojuris law firm can offer quite a lot of new perspectives, insights into the everyday work life in different countries and law firms, improving on a foreign language and enhancing your own network.
I would like to thank Claus Heide Andersen and his colleagues at IDEAL Advokatfirma for hosting me and taking such good care, spending time with me after work to make sure I enjoyed my stay in Odense in the best possible way. Special thanks of course to Eurojuris for supporting my trip financially."
