Meet Oliwia - the new ELSA STEP Trainee at LexDellmeier

Oliwia Puto is an English Law and German Law student at King’s College London and Humboldt University in Berlin and this summer will be supporting the team at LexDellmeier as a legal trainee. She is a member of ELSA - an organisation providing law students and young lawyers from different countries with education and professional development, of which LexDellmeier is a partner. 

Source: https://www.elsa-kiel.de/step/

Hello! My name is Oliwia and this summer I will be supporting the team at LexDellmeier as a legal trainee. I come from Cracow, Poland, but two years ago I moved to the UK to study English Law and German Law at King’s College London. I know - this is an unusual programme, but I chose it because it provides a challenging bi-juridical and bilingual education which ends with a double degree. As a part of it, I will spend my third year at Humboldt University in Berlin, where I will gain an in-depth knowledge in the German legal system and write my Master thesis. Then, I will return to London to complete my education and qualify as a solicitor.

You are probably curious how I found out about LexDellmeier. Everything began when my friend told me about the European Law Student’s Association (ELSA), which is an organisation that aims to promote education and professional development of law students and young lawyers. What really appealed to me as a student with international background was that ELSA truly believes in the importance of international cooperation and advocates the need for cultural diversity within the legal profession.

In order to achieve its purposes, ELSA provides its members with a wide range of opportunities, such as moot court competitions, seminars and summer law schools. It also organises the Student Trainee Exchange Programme (STEP), which enables law students and young lawyers to gain legal work experience in another country and legal system by connecting them with partnering law firms. I have decided to take part in this programme and apply to LexDellmeier- a firm that perfectly suited my interests, as it specialised in IP law and operated under German jurisdiction. I was over the moon when after the interview I received an email saying “it is a pleasure for us to inform you that we would like to engage you as a trainee”.

As a trainee at LexDellmeier, my responsibilities are threefold. Firstly, I have to take care of organisational and administrative tasks, such as docketing of deadlines, creating and sorting files and using the firm’s docketing system. This is an element vital for my legal education, as it allows me to see how a law firm operates in practice. Secondly, I work on legal topics under the supervision of the attorneys. This includes reading files from ongoing cases and drafting legal documents. I am also responsible for writing blog articles about most current issues in the field of IP law and preparing webinars. This part of the traineeship aims to advance my knowledge of the law and skills necessary in the legal profession. Thirdly, in the next few weeks I will start working on my overall project, which is the creation of a “chatbot” for trademarks. I am looking forward to it, as it will allow me to build something useful for the firm. In addition, this task perfectly corresponds with my interest in law and technology.

I am really excited for the next three months and sincerely encourage all law students to apply for one of the ELSA STEP traineeships!