Aude Leveau graduated from CCLS at the University of London Institute in Paris with an International Business Law LLM and is now the general secretary of the Dapper Foundation. She shares her profile on International Women's Day.
After spending a few years as a banking and finance lawyer, I decided to make a big shift. I am now the general secretary of the Dapper Foundation (@fondationdapper), a non-profit institution promoting African arts worldwide and have launched Bamanee (@bamanee), an ethical brand of women clothing made in a socially responsible way in Senegal (Africa).
I graduated from CCLS in International Business Law. Overall, experiencing an academic system that is very different from the French one broadened my mind and knowledge. I joined QMUL to study corporate and banking international law.
CCLS courses brought me the practical skills I was looking for as a young business lawyer. However, it also went beyond my expectations: I had the opportunity to study other subjects such as intellectual property law and arbitration. I am convinced that gaining knowledge in various fields of commercial law is a real plus to interact more efficiently with colleagues from other areas of law. This is also something that can open up new professional opportunities: in my new activities, intellectual law and copyright law are core competences. I am convinced that today, developing an expertise in a given law practice is necessary yet not enough. We must be able to collaborate efficiently with others, to learn and adapt to new needs and expectations. The CCLS LLM programme contributes to enhancing these abilities.
As an LLM student, I had the opportunity to interact with business law professionals (both teachers and students) from all over the world. Besides the human enrichment of hanging out with people you would have never met in another context, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to concretely learn how to work and collaborate with lawyers that have various education and law systems. I remember that we spent hours at CCLS and in parks and bars, discussing our cultures and habits as well as legal issues from different perspectives. That was a pretty good mix!
Keep in mind your majors and desire of specialisation but do not forget to pick subjects you are not comfortable with/you do not necessarily need for your short-term professional goals. Be curious. That could bring you a lot more than you can imagine!
Commit yourself to extracurricular activities; interact with your teachers and fellow students to the maximum. That’s useful networking and mutual enrichment.
And one last thing: be careful enough to select a dissertation topic that you are deeply interested in because that would be an understatement to say that you will spend a few hours on it!