Sarah Winter, Germany / January – March 2017

Experience report by Sarah Winter about the time in the Heskia-Hacmun Law Firm in Tel Aviv from 01.01.2017 to the 31.03.2017

I was happy to complete my German internship in the Heskia-Hacmun Law Firm in Tel Aviv from January 2017 to March 2017. I have found the Heskia-Hacmun law firm in Tel Aviv on the homepage of the German-Israeli lawyers association and decided on the basis of the relations with Germany and the many German clients and cases for this law firm, because of the possibility to actively participate in this cases. One reason was also that the law firm is located on the 17th floor in an office building directly at the sea, so that you can enjoy not only a wonderful view, but also especially its lunch break at the beach.

One advantage of the law firm is its size. With just five attorneys and usually 3 to 4 trainees or interns, a pleasant personal mood prevails. So you feel very comfortable and as a part of the team. From the start I was very openly and warmly received by Adi Zalk, the lawyer responsible for the interns and legal trainees, so that the initial excitement also quickly disappeared. In addition, there was often the opportunity to accompany the lawyers to court meetings or to meetings with clients. During my time in the office, I was able to take part in an evening event at the University of Tel Aviv, including Heiko Maas and the Israeli Ministry of Justice on the subject of “the Rosenburg file”.

The daily tasks are very varied. The law firm’s focus is on Corporate and Commercial Legal Services in Israel, Banking, Dispute Resolution, International Transactions, Patents and Trademarks, Tax Law, Inheritance and Estates. However, the main focus of my activity was on inheritance law. My tasks included besides drafting legal opinions, translations and legal research regarding Gernan and international law, the correspondence and the draft or rather submission of requests to several German and Israeli authorities and other institutions.

Even if the official language is Hebrew, which is sometimes exciting with the walk to the authorities,  much German is spoken in the office, and the results of the work have mostly been written in German or English.

Not only the city of Tel Aviv but also the whole country of Israel have a lot to offer. Heskia-Hacmun attaches great importance to getting to know the country and its culture, so that you will also have enough time to travel. Due to the short distances you have the possibility to travel a lot in a few weeks and see exciting places and to gain impressions.

In summary I can highly recommend an internship in Tel Aviv to everyone! It is a great opportunity to get to know a completely different way of living and working and having a great time overall. Thank you to the whole team of Heskia-Hacmun for this unique opportunity!