Your future at AKD starts here!

Mentor

I'm still part of the same team, which now consists of a partner, an associate partner, an associate and three junior associates, including myself. As a junior associate, I do have a special position what with all my experience. We want to offer the two other juniors the best support, so one shares a room with the partner, and the other one with me. I like being a mentor because I know for certain that it can be hard to walk into a busy partner's office to ask a question. I get questions ranging from material matters to practical questions about the skiing trip, which I've been on myself for a couple of times now. I'm now reaping the benefits from my experience working here: I can focus on my professional training, because the work comes relatively easy to me.

And yet I never know on Monday what the rest of the week will be like. Every morning I take my son to the day care centre or to my parents and then drive straight to work. I check my emails, read documents, draft letters and more, and have calls and meetings with colleagues or clients. I answer questions from trainees or juniors or meet with a partner to bounce some ideas off of them. Times can turn pretty hectic whenever a closing is coming up: there may be last-minute changes or the right papers have not come in yet. I love the speed at which we change gears trying to get the transaction through, gives me so much energy!

Flexibility

By now I know what's the most efficient way to bring order to my working day, so I don't have to do much at night. Still, there are times when I have to work nights. That's part and parcel of our jobs, I think, definitely in our practice. So to be able to combine my work and my family, I need a lot of flexibility. I'm happy to say that, luckily, AKD allows me all the flexibility I need. I'm the only junior associate with a kid, but I'm never made to feel uneasy or heavy-hearted about it. They give me the freedom to arrange my work exactly so that I can be a good lawyer as well as a good mother.

Two days a week, I leave at around 5pm to collect my son. On those days, I'm off the air until about 9pm, when I log on again to finish my work. My colleagues will never push me, they know I get on the job when I have time. I cherish that trust. The other days, my husband will pick up our son, so I can stay in the office a bit longer. My parents and his parents are always on stand-by as well, and help us out when our boy is ill, for example, and my husband and I both have important meetings. Without that safety net and the flexibility offered by AKD, I couldn't work a full-time job. So I'm immensely grateful for that.

Growth

It is quite a challenge at times to keep so many plates in the air. But I thoroughly enjoy my work, my clients, and my team allows me what room I need to grow, as a person and as a professional. I began my career at AKD as a student, who knows what the future will bring? One thing is clear, though, if you ask me: that future will be at AKD!