Summer Placement Blog by Tom Fesnoux

It’s the first week and I’m in Government and Infrastructure. My desk faces an enormous window which gives me beautiful views of the adjacent buildings and the never ending bouts of summer rain. I have a phone, my own computer, and a security pass giving me the ability to access the many hidden treasures behind locked doors, reserved only for the lucky people at BDB. I’m not sure, but I believe that I may have the best located desk in the entire department, not too bad for a summer placement student! The department is filled with a very friendly group of people. Everyone seems to always be smiling, and it is not uncommon to hear (and even participate in) fun banter between employees. Before I started here, I pictured that a public law department would likely be quite stuffy and formal, but this could not be further from the truth. Most people in the department don’t wear ties or suit jackets, and there are even a lot of them that leave a button or two of their shirts undone – very relaxed indeed. But don’t get the wrong idea there was much work to be done!

My first task was given to me by a Senior Associate. He laid down the Times in front of me, instructed me to read an article and that he would explain once I was done. After reading, I looked up at him, and he said ‘that’s my client’. I was impressed. I couldn’t believe that I was about to help on a news-making case! He then gave me two binders, one containing BDB’s claim and the other the defence, and told me to get acquainted with the files. Hours of reading later, I was finally ready to begin the real task – to seek out a specialist that could corroborate BDB’s claim against the defendant. Though it took some time, I am happy to say that the next day I presented him with roughly five experts in the field, and their CVs (believe it or not, those things can be quite hard to find sometimes!). I’m not sure if any of the experts I found will end up making their way into the BDB case file, but nevertheless I feel satisfied that I was able to contribute to some real work.

Throughout the week I was given the chance to go to a couple of different meetings which ended up being some of the best times during the week because they gave me the chance to see what happens behind the scenes. The first meeting was a knowledge sharing session where someone presented on the legalities of car-clamping and afterwards each member updated the department on what they were currently working on. It amazed me how open the dialogue was and how cheerful people seemed to be – particularly the head of the department who was sitting right next to me. The second meeting was more intimate with only about eight people present, and concerned marketing related matters and developing the BDB brand. Common phrases heard were: ‘I’ll call him up for coffee’, ‘he owes me a favour’, ‘she’d be a good person to invite’, etc. The meeting gave me an insight into the ‘business’ side of BDB, and I found it to be one of my favourite parts of the week.

I finished off the week by researching the EU Services Directive and going through endless documents on Europa to answer a question posed to me by a Trainee. If you enjoyed EU law at school than this task would have been right up your alley since it involved a forensic exercise looking into the rationale of the internal market. I found myself digging deep into the legal history of the Directive, reading everything from the policy background dating from 5 years before the Directive was passed, to questions and answers posed on Europa only months ago. The task was a great way to round off the week, sending me into the weekend with Business Services waiting for me on the other end.