Valentin Groslimond, lawyer at the bar

Since December 2018, I have set up my own law firm and practise as an independent barrister. My clients' requests mainly concern employment, tenancy and family law issues, which correspond to the everyday needs of citizens. I am also called upon to act as a "first hour lawyer", a form of legal assistance in criminal law for people on remand who have the right to be assisted by a lawyer from the first police questioning following their arrest.

I chose to study law because I wanted to have a social career, where human beings were at the centre of my work. My friends and family also convinced me that this training would enable me to perform a variety of functions as a jurist or lawyer. I studied at the University of Lausanne, where I obtained a Bachelor's degree in Swiss Law, followed by a Master's degree in Law, with a major in Magistrates (since replaced by the Master's degree in Law in Judicial Professions).

Six months into my Master's degree, I started looking for a place to do my legal traineeship. I made around fifty applications, which resulted in a huge number of rejections and barely two interviews, as most law firms had already taken on their trainees for the next two years. I was desperate to gain professional experience, so I looked for a job as a lawyer or clerk. I was hired by the State of Vaud as a lawyer and labour market inspector. My job was to ensure compliance with the Labour Act and its implementing ordinances, which protect workers' working conditions, combat illegal employment and ensure the safety of employees. It was a job that confronted me with complex situations, because an inspector is rarely welcome when he arrives unannounced at a company. This first experience taught me to develop confidence in myself and my legal knowledge, to negotiate and to keep legal files. I then found a place as a trainee lawyer in Vevey, with the law firm Etter & Seeger, under the supervision of Cornalia Seeger Tappy. I spent just over two years there. My work included all the tasks of a lawyer (legal advice, legal research, meeting clients, preparing strategy, assisting and representing clients in court, pleadings, etc.), the only difference being that I was supervised, advised and corrected by my trainee supervisor. My two years as a trainee prepared me well for the bar exam, as I was able to handle a multitude of cases, practising in many different areas of law. Once my traineeship was over, I spent two months full-time revising what I'd learned during the traineeship and going back to my courses. I qualified as a solicitor in 2015. I worked for Protekta Legal Protection Insurance Ltd as a lawyer. I learned to work quickly and efficiently. I had to give clients a quick response and was given new cases to deal with every day. The aim was to settle the majority of cases out of court. If that wasn't possible, I would pass the case on to an independent lawyer who would take it over and deal with it in court. In return, I received the court's decisions, which enabled me to learn a great deal about defending policyholders.

My first piece of advice would be to develop your academic and professional career by taking things step by step. When you start your studies, you become aware of the reality of training. At that point, it's important to ask yourself whether you really like the field, whether it's going to lead you to the career you want, what difficulties you'll have to overcome to get there, what other possibilities there are, and so on. It's important to find out about the content of the Masters course, and to do work experience placements in companies, law firms or courts, and to talk to professionals whenever the opportunity arises. The chances of landing a good job increase for lawyers who have passed the bar exam. So if your aim is to do a traineeship as a lawyer after you've completed your Master's degree, my advice is very simple: apply during your Master's degree, because places are very hard to come by. If, unfortunately, you don't find a traineeship place straight after the Master's, don't get discouraged and look for a position as a lawyer or court clerk in parallel, in order to gain experience and increase your chances of finding a traineeship place as a lawyer. My second piece of advice is to learn or improve your German. The French-speaking part of Switzerland is very small and, as a lawyer in French-speaking Switzerland, I regularly receive requests from clients for cases to be handled in German in courts in German-speaking Switzerland. As my level of German does not allow me to deal with these cases in the best possible way, I refer these clients to bilingual lawyers. However, don't panic, my diary is quite full with cases that will be handled in French!