International career building mosaic: What's ahead?

published on 24. January 2022

by Marcus Brinck

Sometimes our career path unexpectedly changes its regular direction by offering attractive opportunities and bringing us to thrilling professional adventures. Marcus Brinck, Attorney-at-law and Legal Associate at Rödl & Partner Lithuania, kindly shares his own impressions about a smooth start of his legal career after relocating from Germany to Lithuania.

A couple of months ago you have relocated to Lithuania and joined Rödl & Partner Vilnius office. What are your initial impressions about the company, the Lithuanians and the country itself?

One of the very first things was, that I was surprised seeing a familiar German law firm here in Vilnius. After getting in contact and getting to know everyone at Rödl & Partner Vilnius I was quickly impressed about the work atmosphere, collegiality, and, of course, that there were so many German speaking colleagues here.

To me the Lithuanians seemed in general like a young, open minded and looking into the future people. Sometimes they are a bit hard to get in touch with, but very nice once you get to know them.

One thing I really liked about the country itself is the huge amount of nature everywhere, even Vilnius is a widely expanded city with lots of parks and green areas in between. Also, I noticed there are still some remnants from the soviet times, especially regarding architecture. But at the same time I think there is a lot of potential for the future here in Lithuania as well, especially considering the rapid changes and focus on technology over the recent years.

Could you please describe your daily routine as a lawyer? Which legal assignments are at the core of your interest?

It is only possible to a limited extent to describe a classical daily routine, as every day is different. The daily schedule depends a lot on what clients you might have at the time and in what way you are assisting them in legal matters.

Usually, a day as a lawyer starts not much different than in most office jobs, with checking your e-mails and organizing your tasks for the day. Although during the day very often more things come up: There might be an inquiry by a potential new client who needs legal advice, an already existing client needs (urgent) help with a law related matter, or a colleague might ask for your assistance on one of their cases.

As I’m still very new to the lawyer business there is not a specific type of assignment which can already be for certain described as at the core of my interest. I’m still helping out in a lot of different areas of law, from individual persons who have questions regarding a contract they concluded to fusions of big companies. But maybe exactly this variety of different fields is what makes it so interesting right now.

In 2018, successfully graduated from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, you obtained legal practice as a judicial clerk at the Higher Regional Court Nuremberg. What major advantages of a legal profession could you point out?

In my opinion, a few major advantages of a legal profession include for example the ability to better understand legal everyday problems. Also, that you have a lot of different possibilities in life, as some knowledge about the law is useful almost everywhere.

Would you recommend for hesitating youngsters to choose legal studies? Why?

Which studies to choose depends a lot on each individual person itself. I personally didn’t regret choosing legal studies. For me it was always rather “fun” to work out the best solution for a legal problem, as it has a lot to do with logical and structured thinking, a bit like a “brain teaser”.

And also career wise legal studies offer a lot of possible opportunities. Besides the classical legal jobs as lawyer or judge there are also vast job opportunities in any business, as there is basically no position where it wouldn’t be beneficial to have some knowledge about the law.

All things considered, I would definitely recommend choosing legal studies especially for undecided youngsters, as this offers still a lot of different possibilities and paths in the later life. As long as you also have fun with the working methods of law.

At the very beginning of 2022, you have been registered with the Lithuanian Bar Association as an attorney-at-law. What does this mean to you in a personal and professional manner?

Personally, it feels of course pretty good and gives a feeling of accomplishment to be recognized here as a full-fledged attorney-at-law after many years of studying and legal education. Especially as being an attorney-at-law is something rather special in Lithuania.

Professionally, I of course want to show that I live up to that title and want to improve my knowledge and skills regarding Lithuanian law, but also regarding legal work in general.

Would you share with us your future professional ambitions? Are they more related to Lithuania, Germany or other countries?

Regarding my future professional ambitions there are a few lose plans which include Lithuania as well as Germany.

For one thing I would like to do an additional master degree at a university in Vilnius to acquire an LL.M. – Legum Magister. I’m eager to improve my law knowledge and am also curious about studies in a foreign country.

Secondly, I would potentially like to also do a PhD at some point, maybe even in Germany so I would not lose too much connection to the German law.

Ultimately, I’m not sure yet where my professional career will lead me in the end, but I would consider myself lucky finding a permanent place right here.

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