Summer School of Law: Teachers’ Experiences

This was the second annual Summer School of Law we organised together with the Students’ Association for International Co-operation. Its aim was to allow law students gain theoretical and practical knowledge in a variety of areas of law.

On the first day the students attended a presentation on developing and selling real estate, delivered by Predrag Stojanovski Attorney at Law with our Real Estate Department. He also outlined what his unit did at the firm.

The students learned about the importance of due diligence when purchasing real estate, the stages involved in selling and buying real estate, and how real estate purchases were treated for tax purposes. They could also find out more about using the various online tools offered by the Serbian Land Survey Agency (such as knweb and geosrbija) and the Belgrade Land Development Agency (GIS) to collect real estate information.

The course also offered the students an opportunity to use these skills by developing a mock preemptive purchase offer, decide what to do with a highly valuable asset, and draft a real estate sale and purchase agreement. At the end of the first day of the course, the students had the chance to learn more about real estate development (from idea to occupancy permit), stage by stage, as well as to understand how Serbian building permits worked.

The second day featured a lecture on leasing contracts. The students were also able to learn more about the key concepts in insurance and how it was linked with leasing.

Attorney at Law Marinković delivered the first presentation, in which he explained the notion of leasing and the extent of the parties’ rights and obligations arising from leasing contracts. He also outlined the key differences between leasing and loan agreements and those between operating and financial leases. The second part of the lecture was devoted to insurance, where Attorneys at Law Aleksandra Kozić and Selena Gojković explained the theory and practice of insurance law, contractual relationships in insurance, and how insurance was linked to leasing.

After the presentations, the students and the lecturers together visited Vuković and Partners client Sava Osiguranje to learn more about how an insurance company worked. Sava Osiguranje delivered a presentation about their company, and the students could ask specific questions about this area of law.

The third day of the Summer School of Law was dedicated to NPL investments. Here, Kristina Jovanović, Attorney at Law with our firm’s Banking and Finance Department, explained what NPLs were and how they were designated as such, as well as what drove their sales.

An engaging diagram was presented to explain how NPLs were sold. To make it easier for students to understand the formalities and theory underlying this process, the presentation was highly interactive. The question and answer dynamic helped foster information sharing and enabled the students to independently draw logical conclusions about how NPL sales worked.

The teacher then took the students on a visit to one of Vuković and Partners’ largest clients, ODM Collections, where they were treated to a comprehensive presentation of NPL trading in practice from professionals in the field.

The students showed much interest in the collection company’s operations, asking questions, venturing opinions, and engaging in discussions about the extent of theoretical and practical knowledge available at university, and citing their own personal experiences with non-performing loans and enforcement officers. This was the most interactive day of the Summer School.

Day four saw the focus shift to corporate law with a lecture on transferring equity interests in a leasing company. This presentation was delivered by Attorney at Law Igor Joksović of the our firm’s Corporate Law Department, who also introduced his unit and the areas of law in which it specialises.

The students had the opportunity to learn about the key features and concepts of corporate law, such as the notion of company, corporate governance bodies, articles of association, structure of a leasing firm, and the like. Other issues covered included the tax treatment of the equity interest transfer transaction and initiating the required procedure with the Business Registers Agency.

In addition, the students had the chance to learn about the practical issues accompanying equity interest transfers, the stages of these transactions, and cases of interesting transactions handled by our law firm. Lastly, the participants could apply their new skills by drafting a mock equity transfer agreement and completing a registration application for the Business Registers Agency.

The lecture was followed by a visit to the Stadion Shopping Centre, another client of Vuković and Partners. The shopping mall’s managers spoke about the operations of the retail hub, focusing on corporate governance and marketing.

The final day of the Summer School was dedicated to labour law, where the students heard from our Senior Intern Nikolina Dubroja about the key concepts, labour practices, various types of employment contracts, hiring, and employee rights.

Particular attention was paid to mobbing in the workplace, which accounted for the greatest part of the presentation. The students received advice on how to recognise behaviour that is considered mobbing and learn more about how legal safeguards against this form of harassment work.

The final session, dedicated to practical exercises, again demonstrated the extent to which the Summer School was oriented towards providing useful real-life skills. Here, the students were able to draft a mock mobbing lawsuit, which also provided experience with the basic tenets of procedural law.

We are proud to say that our young colleagues, future lawyers, have shown exemplary knowledge and much interest, both when actively participating in the lectures and when engaging in practical work. We are happy to have recognised their desire to learn, advance, and gain new skills. We trust we have helped some of them find their career paths. We wish them the best of luck in their studies and their professional lives.