The importance of professional development: San Simón & Duch takes part in prestigious German Scholarship program

With the aim of reinforcing the internationalisation of the firm, as well as developing links to other lawyers and exchanging knowledge and experience in each area of the legal practice, San Simón & Duch are taking part in the latest edition of the Shipping and Marine Insurance Scholarship, organised by German firm Dabelstein & Passehl.

Over the course of two weeks the lawyers who travel to the Hamburg offices of D&P will take part in visits and attend presentations on maritime law, transport and insurance where “the corner stone is direct contact between lawyers, helping to develop relationships between firms which leads to a better professional service, particularly taking into account how international this sector is”, explains Diego San Simón, one of the participants in the course.

D&P’s aim for the annual scholarship aimed at young foreign lawyers is the creation of a worldwide network of specialist lawyers who are not only familiar with the German legal system, but also those of those other countries represented by participants in the Scholarship. This allows them to act as ‘foreign correspondents’, representing German clients, as well as those of other nationalities.

This is the main advantage of the Scholarship according to Diego San Simón: “the exchange of knowledge, building personal and professional relationships, together with the experience of seeing how situations are dealt with in other firms from countries with different legal systems to our own”. For him it is, “a unique experience and adds value to the career of any young lawyer”.

The course allows for an exchange of experiences which covers clients’ viewpoints. “This allows for a practical as well as theoretical view on the German shipping sector”, says San Simón.

The subjects to be looked at during the 15 day Scholarship include financing and ship-building, different types of transportation contract such as International Carriage of Goods (CMR) and multi-mode transport, general average and salvage rules, arrest of sea-going ships, and the types of insurance used in each sector and activity.

This prestigious Scholarship is a of great importance to those law firms specialising in maritime law, transport and insurance, as shown by the fact that lawyers from South Africa, Russia, Australia, Argentina, Egypt, England, Italy, USA, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, India, Norway and Turkey amongst others have attended.