Rebecka Ekberg has been working as an associate at Delphi & Co in Malmö, Sweden, for just over four years now. She has recently spent a month with our London and Dublin member firms on Exchange, and wrote the following about her experience:

 Without having to change employer, I have had the great opportunity to go abroad for a total of eight weeks and experience working at another law firm.

I have been working as an associate at the law firm Delphi & Co in Malmö, Sweden, for just over four years now and prior to that I served one and a half years at one of the County Courts in Sweden. It has been an ambition of mine for the past years to work at a law firm in an English speaking country for a short period and I was therefore delighted when both Royds LLP and Reddy Charlton McKnight (“RCMCK”) offered me the chance to come over for four weeks to each of their firms, and when the partners at Delphi & Co agreed to this.

During my stay in London and Dublin, I have mainly been working with my own Swedish clients. The rest of the time I have been sitting in at mediations, hearings and meetings and I have also been drafting various legal documents for Royds LLP and RCMCK.

Sitting in at mediations was a very interesting experience for me, since mediation is only rarely used as a private institution in Sweden. However, mediation is a hot-topic in Sweden and I do believe that it will become more and more common in Sweden, a fact which I welcome.

Another difference between Sweden on one side and Great Britain and Ireland on the other side is that the agreements in both Great Britain and Ireland are very detailed, while we in Sweden write shorter agreements. I believe that we in Sweden are more backed up by statutes, which will fill in the gaps in an agreement for parties who have not agreed anything about a specific “what if- situation“. Due to the internalization of law, more detailed agreements are becoming more and more common in Sweden as well, even if they are not really needed.

There are differences in how you work and how you are organized at Delphi & Co, Royds LLP and RCMCK. I however do not think that this mainly has to do with the fact that the law firms are situated in different countries, but more due to differences in the size of the law firms, the size of the cities in which they are located, and the structure of the workforce (number of partners, associates, trainees and secretaries and the age and gender of these).

Another interesting thing I have been thinking of is how the structural design of the offices influence how you organize your work and what contact you have with your colleagues. This really has a great impact!

A related topic is how effective it is to have joint coffee breaks. I have now experienced an office with joint coffee breaks twice a day, once a day and not at all and I am of the opinion that it is effective taking coffee breaks together with your colleagues.

It has also been interesting to learn about how Royds LLP and RCMCK work with templates and organizes it documents in its computer systems and to compare this with Delphi & Co.

Hopefully I have also improved my English during these eight weeks.

However, when I am back in Sweden and look back at my visit at Royds LLP and RCMCK it is not the differences in law, practice and organization I will mainly be thinking of. I will be thinking of my colleagues at Royds LLP and RCMCK who have given me a great time in London and in Dublin. I have been taken to many social events and have had the opportunity to get to know many nice people. I think that this is the main purpose of going away to another firm – to get to know people! In the future, when we need some help at Delphi & Co with regard to English or Irish law, I know to whom we shall direct our questions, and I will know personally who I will be speaking to over the phone. This means a lot!

Rebecka Ekberg