Interning at a French Law Firm

Author: Bianca Gamez

Location: Paris, France

Pronouns: He/His/Him

For the second half of the semester, my study abroad program had the students do an internship in either English or French. Before being placed somewhere, the program teams up with EUSA that deals with the placement of each student. This process was tedious for me and pretty much every other student because over the summer we had to turn our resumés into a CVs which is a different format and it also needed to be in French. Apart from this, we also had to have a Skype interview with one of the EUSA representatives in order for them to see our French speaking skills and be able to get to know us. Not only did we have to do this, but we also had to fill out a couple documents and surveys online through their platform. After all of this, we just had to wait until we came abroad and see where we would be placed and who we will be interviewing with.

Since each student could specify which sector they would like to be placed for their internship, I decided to be placed in either political science or law sector. Since, I have already had experience working at a law firm in the U.S. it was not hard to convince them to place me in one. Fortunately, I conducted my interview at Cabinet Castellane Avocats which is a French law firm. The founder, Béatrice Castellane, of the enterprise let me intern with her firm for the rest of the program, and so far, I have been pleased with this internship.

Cabinet Castellane Avocats is located in the northwest part of Paris, Trocadero. In order to get into the building, you need three different types of codes in order to enter the private neighborhood, the apartment, and to access the stairs and elevator. The office is small and only consists of the attorney Castellane, another intern who is about to graduate from law school, and me. The other intern and me both have our own desks, computers, and work folders. I only work Mondays through Thursdays from 10a.m. to about 7p.m, and my tasks mainly consist of reading and responding to e-mails, reading cases, contributing my thoughts and opinions on the cases, helping draft documents, and preparing the documents for the hearings. Most of tasks and communication is in French except for the cases that are conducted in English.

Throughout my internship, I have been taken out of my comfort zone and have had my own morals and thoughts challenged. I learned that this was normal since my culture and the French culture is different especially when talking about politics. I will say, however, that I have learned so much from interning at a French law firm. My vocabulary and grammar have advanced so much legally and also from a day to day basis. I have become more comfortable when speaking in French because of this opportunity since I am forced to communicate effectively on what I am thinking and feeling about documents. Overall, this internship has helped develop my French speaking skills and has opened another professional career for me which is arbitrational work.