Bredin Prat

Juliette Holland

Trainee secondment to Bredin Prat

During the fourth seat of my training contract, I spent six months on secondment to Bredin Prat in Paris, sitting in their Competition team. During this time, I was involved in a variety of tasks and matters that ranged from research into previous European Commission decisions to working on technical questions around whether certain transactions met thresholds that would mean they had to be notified to competition authorities in a particular jurisdiction. I was also given the opportunity to help draft the documents submitted as part of a filing being made to the European Commission, which is something you don’t often get to do as a trainee.

Having previously sat in Competition in my first seat, I already had some experience in European Commission matters and in most of the tasks I was given - which made the adjustment to carrying some of them out in French that bit easier! I was also able to get involved in French Competition Authority work which was completely new territory and really interesting to compare to practices in the UK.

The culture at Bredin is not dissimilar to the culture at Slaughter and May, with the welcome addition of a few French quirks (e.g. a cheese course in your training lunch etc!). It was not uncommon to have a few lunches out a week with members of the team or other secondees at the firm, which was a great way to get to know people better.

Living in the centre of Paris for six months was an unforgettable experience – swapping out my Northern Line commute for one that consisted of a walk by the Eiffel Tower every morning was an undeniable upgrade that I miss a lot. Most firms send trainees to Paris on secondment, so I found that there was a large group of people to explore Paris with and we really made the most of everything the city has to offer. I also got to know the other secondees at Bredin well, so enjoyed exploring Paris with them.

I would definitely recommend going on secondment! Having the opportunity to live and work abroad is an invaluable experience that allows you to be completely immersed in a different culture, and it was really interesting to see how a similar firm to ours has different working practices. It was also a great opportunity to meet new people, whether that be trainees at different firms also on secondment in Paris, lawyers at Bredin Prat or colleagues from other countries on secondment at the firm.