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GAZE1TE
DECEMBER 1977
SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS
ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DES JEUNES
AVOCATS
The Association Internationale Des Jeunes Avocats is
an international organisation composed of young lawyers
who are keen to foster a continuous exchange of ideas
between lawyers in different countries.
One of its programmes is to encourage young lawyers
to spend a short time working in an office abroad.
Contact between young lawyers of all countries has
made obvious the differences in professional education
and practice in each country. This difference in system is
an obstacle to the internationalisation of the profession
and the lawyer, confronted with a procedure or a problem
to resolve abroad, is generally not sufficiently well
informed to deal with it. Usually he will consult a lawyer
in the country where the problem has arisen but it is
obviously an enormous advantage if he has at least some
general knowledge of the manner in which the legal
system in that country works.
The best means of gaining such knowledge is to spend
some time working in a legal office in that country. It is
only at the beginning of his career that a lawyer can allow
himself an absence of two or three months or more to
work in an office abroad, but it is precisely at this time
that he normally lacks the necessary contacts to put this
into effect.
The AIJA has established a Permanent Secretariat for
the Exchange of Stagiaires (SPES) in the hope that it can
provide the necessary contacts for young lawyers wishing
to work abroad.
Aim of the Stage
The aim of SPES is to introduce young lawyers to
the daily professional practice of other countries and to
put them in contact with colleagues who will welcome
them.
It is important for the office receiving the young lawyer
to benefit from his visit; in practice this will happen only if
the visiting lawyer has already acquired some practical
experience which will allow him to explain the way the law
and the legal profession works in his own country.
The working of SPES
SPES is organised by delegates in each country which
participates in the exchange of Stagiaires. The delegates
are members of the AIJA and will help young lawyers to
find suitable offices in the country they wish to visit. They
will introduce the Stagiaires in professional circles and
assure him of contact with colleagues of his own age.
AIJA has members in all of the countries in Europe,
North Africa, the Middle East and North and South
America and it is therefore able to put together a network
of correspondents who are well placed to organise the
exchange of young lawyers.
SPES works in the following manner
1. A young lawyer makes a request for a stage abroad to
an AIJA delegate, a delegate of SPES or by any other
means which makes any delegate of SPES aware of
his request.
2. The candidate fills in an application form containing
all useful details for the requirements of the stage and
has a meeting with the SPES delegate in his own
country.
3. The request thus completed is transmitted by the
SPES delegate to his SPES correspondent in the
country requested and the latter endeavours to find an
office which meets the requirements.
4. The result is notified directly to the candidate as well
as to the SPES delegate in the country of origin of the
candidate.
5. The candidate makes direct contact with the office
which has accepted him in principle and they agree the
practical arrangements for the stage.
6. The candidate informs the SPES delegate originally
consulted as well as the SPES delegate in the country
to be visited of the arrangements which have been
made. SPES in the country being visited will
undertake to arrange all necessary introductions and
contacts in legal circles there.
7. At the end of the stage the young lawyer is required to
make a report to SPES on the stage giving full details
of his stay with his suggestions, recommendations and
criticisms. This report is designed to improve the system
for the future and is essential for the proper
functioning of SPES.
8. The office which is being visited in its turn gives its
observations and suggestions in a similar report to
SPES.
Duration of stage abroad
The aim of SPES is to familiarise the young lawyer
with the practice of the profession in another country and
to enable him to see how the system works. This
knowledge, which arises specifically from the daily
practicé of the host office, can be acquired in the course
of a very short period; a stage of three months is normal,
as this period will not in any way prejudice the
professional training or career of the young lawyer in his
own country.
General
The exchange is principally of interest to the young
lawyer who has the opportunity to round off his
professional education. However SPES also seeks to
ensure that the host office will also benefit from the visit
and, in order to realise this aim, the young lawyer will only
be allowed to undertake a stage abroad if he has acquired
some practical experience in his own country.
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