Brussels

Macy Lawrance-Thompson

Trainee secondment to our Brussels office

I spent the first three months of my Competition seat in the firm's Brussels office. The recently refurbished office is on one floor of a building occupied by other relationship firms and is a short walk from the European Commission and Parliament. There is also a park just across the road, which I took advantage of on sunny days at lunchtime! 

Slaughter and May’s Competition team in Europe is split across London and Brussels, and I assisted associates and partners in both offices on a wide variety of matters. My days were very varied, from conducting preliminary merger control and foreign investment analyses for multi-jurisdictional transactions, to drafting parts of responses to requests for information (RFIs) from national competition authorities in antitrust investigations. I also assisted with general advisory work in relation to new legislation such as the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA).

I was also able to take part in several training sessions hosted by the other relationship firms and advisors (such as economists) we work with, which typically had an EU law focus. One aspect that was unique to the Brussels office was the number of opportunities to attend competition law events and conferences, such as talks given by members of the Commission and competition law lectures hosted by the College of Europe, due to Brussels being a hub for EU competition law.

It is a much smaller office compared to London so it's easy to get to know everyone, including the other trainees who are seconded to Brussels at the same time. There are also lots of office social events (laser tag, for example, was not something I imagined attending for a work event!) and events with the other firms in the building, such as the weekly lunches in the shared cafeteria.

There were some great annual events that took place in Brussels during my time on secondment, including Brussels Pride and the Brussels 20km race. As Brussels is much smaller than London, these events become the focal point of the city for the day. Another highlight for me was the ease of day trips to nearby cities such as Bruges and Ghent with friends who were visiting at the weekends.

I would definitely recommend taking up the opportunity to live and work somewhere else. A secondment is a fantastic opportunity to experience a different culture both inside and outside of work and the Brussels secondment in particular is great way to get to know different people within the Competition group.