Christine Meyer: ‘Maybe I had to emigrate to find my place.’

Christine starts our conversation with: ‘Can we do this in English? My Dutch is not that good yet.’ The South African lawyer has been living in the Netherlands for a year and a half and she has been strengthening the ranks of Bakker&Verkuijl for another year. There she is finally able to put her love for the profession into practice.

‘Just after Covid, my husband was offered a job in the Netherlands. At that time, I was working at a law firm in Klerksdorp for two years. There, I mainly attended to family- and contract law. Interesting work, but I already realized that all those days in court was not really my thing. So I didn’t mind leaving my job and following my husband. I’ll see how it goes, I thought.’

Award winning

“While I was still unsure about what I would do here, I saw the vacancy from Bakker&Verkuijl in which they were looking for a paralegal,” the South African reflects. ‘And in the field that I fell in love with during my studies: Intellectual Property. When I discovered Intellectual Property, it was truly love at first sight. And mutually too. I even won the Best Student Award for intellectual property that year.’

Trademarks in the wild

‘Even now that I work with this profession every day, it continues to fascinate me. Not just because IP is always evolving, but also because you encounter your work ‘in the wild’. That makes practice even more fun than theory. For example, I recently submitted a trademark application for Elho and then a few days later I came across those products at the Intratuin. Or when I walk through the city and I can walk into one of The Sting’s stores. I still think that’s great.’

ParalegalPlus

‘I can now say with certainty that I feel completely at home with both Bakker&Verkuijl and trademark law. I now officially work as a paralegal and I take care of the administrative work together with my colleagues. But my law studies in South Africa also allow me to support our trademark attorneys. In concrete terms, this means that I spend half my time assisting them where necessary. For example, with trademark screenings or research and with the preparation of concept documents.’

Further in the profession

“In addition to being able to go into depth about the content, I also have the privilege to work with Eric, Astrid and Adri, who each have their own way of working,” the paralegal/lawyer continues. ‘This way I learn a lot ‘on the job’ about the profession in which I want to develop further. Very useful for when I can hopefully start training to become a trademark attorney myself. A tough specialization that will keep me busy for another two or three years in addition to my work.’

Museums with mayo

Perfect timing in itself. My husband and I are still exploring the Netherlands. And… we fit in quite well, I might say. So we go out every weekend. This time with our museum annual card and the next time with our bicycles. Or perhaps to Eindhoven Glow and then eating fries and croquettes – and of course with some mayo’, Christine Meyer laughs appetizingly. ‘It’s wonderful to be able to act like a tourist for a while. I’ll have a lot less time for that later.’