VP Law Firm • may18, 2022
Panel discussion: from legal intern to lawyer, from lawyer to partner
As part of the “Lawyers at Work – Choose your Career” job fair, on 10 May 2022 members of the Vuković and Partners law firm took part in a panel discussion entitled “From legal intern to lawyer, from lawyer to partner” held at Belgrade University’s Faculty of Law.
Jovana Čapaković, Senior Partner at the firm and head of its Real Estate team, Petar Stojankovski, who joined Vuković and Partners soon after graduating and now represents many clients in the firm’s Real Estate and Construction Department, Kristina Jovanović, a lawyer with a long career track with the non-performing loan (NPL) portfolio team at the Banking and Finance Department, and Isidora Stefanović, HR Manager at Vuković and Partners, responsible for staff selection, recruitment, and development, all spoke about their careers in the legal profession.
The capacity crowd listened attentively to the panellists’ descriptions of how Vuković and Partners started out as a one-man outfit in 2007 and grew to number more than 60 staff today, including lawyers, interns, experts, and administrative support personnel.
Jovana Čapaković outlined the benefits, duties, and obligations of a law firm partner. She spoke about some of the most interesting cases the firm had taken on to date, the projects she had taken part in, and the organisations of which she was a member.
Predrag Stojanovski focused on the experience of interning with a large law firm and becoming a practising lawyer. He explained his role in the Real Estate Department and related many interesting events from his career. Predrag spoke about his Wednesday evening football matches will co-workers and team building events organised by the firm each and every month for its staff. He mentioned how his colleagues, now fast friends, had also initially joined as legal interns only to become full-fledged lawyers. Predrag also spoke about the numerous presentations he had had the opportunity of delivering and how he taught at Young and In Law, the traditional summer school organised annually by Vuković and Partners.
Kristina Jovanović, a lawyer who had worked at a bank before joining the firm, spoke about the differences between banking and legal practice and the strengths and weaknesses of both. Kristina also explained what her position on the team meant and how interesting it actually was to manage and service an NPL portfolio.
HR Manager Isidora Stefanović explained the goals of the law firm and the importance of development for both teams and individual members of each team. She highlighted the significance of her role in recognising talented young people and helping them fully integrate into the firm. Isidora noted Vuković and Partners was aware that satisfied and motivated team members were the key to its success.
The audience posed numerous questions and treated the panellists to a loud round of applause at the end of the event. Many of the students stayed on afterwards for one-on-one chats with members of the Vuković and Partners team, all of whom – together with the entire office – we are rightly proud of.