Today, we welcome a guest post by John “Jack” Buckelew, a member of the University of Georgia School of Law class of 2025. Jack is the fifth Georgia Law student to participate in a semester-long international externship and the first recipient of a grant from the Halle Foundation to support his externship in Germany. The semester-long externships overseas initiative is an extension of the Center’s existing Global Externships Overseas and is offered jointly between the Center and the law school’s Clinical and Experiential Program. Jack’s post describes his experience as a legal extern with Weickmann, an intellectual property firm in Munich, Germany, where he works under Georgia Law alumnus Dr. Udo W. Herberth (LL.M., ’96). Dr. Herberth heads the firm’s Trademark and Design group.

Working in Munich for the past two months has been a deeply transformative experience, shifting my professional outlook in surprising ways. I began this experience feeling a little burned out. The first two years of law school are notoriously challenging, and somewhere along that arduous road I lost sight of the many reasons that I decided to go to law school. At the end of my 2L summer, I had many doubts in my mind about whether life in a law firm after graduation would reinvigorate my previously held excitement towards being an attorney. But these past two months abroad have shown me the unique freedoms and possibilities that come with a career in law, and my view towards the future is now much more optimistic.

BITMA

Three weeks into my stay in Munich, my office hosted one of its biggest events of the year– the annual Bavarian International Trademark Association Conference (BITMA). The annual conference is a relatively new idea created by my supervisor at Weickmann, Dr. Udo Herberth. He developed the idea at the height of the COVID pandemic as an opportunity for colleagues to connect in-person. Now, attorneys travel from around the world– this year from 20 different countries– to participate in this conference.

Because the IP practice is so international, these attorneys have a vested interest in (1) establishing business relationships with attorneys around the world and (2) learning about the substantive differences of the IP practice in different countries. BITMA was only a two-day event, but those two 48 hours were packed with activities. BITMA kicked off with a day full of instructional presentations where attorneys spoke about novel issues of trademark law in their home countries. Then, participants enjoyed a long meal at a traditional Bavarian restaurant in downtown Munich. The next day, we resumed presentations and then headed back into town to join the rest of the city in celebrating the first weekend of Oktoberfest.

I personally had the chance to talk to over 20 different attorneys about their career paths, their current practice, and what they enjoyed most about their lives as attorneys. The experience was not only extremely informative but also very fun, and I was able to expand my professional network. I honestly feel like the connections I made in that environment will go a lot farther than any meeting in a formal setting ever could. An attorney from France gave me her personal phone number and told me to text her for restaurant recommendations if I’m ever in Paris; another attorney from Cologne told me I could stay on his couch if I ever wanted to visit him; and an attorney from Beijing broke into tears as he shared the importance of finding a good mentor at the start of a career. All of this happened as we danced and sang in our traditional Bavarian clothing. Attending BITMA was an experience to remember.

Substantive Work and Life in Munich

BITMA may have been the highlight of my externship so far, but my day-to-day work has also been extremely engaging. One feature of the job that I have particularly enjoyed is the vast range of substantive issues I am able to work on at Weickmann. On my first day, I worked on a design patent for a grill tray; later, a position trademark for bike sprocket; then, the naming rights for a brand of hiking shoes; and now, I am working on the design for coffee mug sleeve that prevents users from burning their hands. Each of these clients comes from an entirely different industry, all bringing their own creative innovations to the market and seeking protection from our firm. My work is limited to trademarks and designs, but I often have lunch with other attorneys in the firm who work on patents, and the range of products there is arguably even greater. They also work to protect innovation, but at a more technical level. It can be really educational to talk with these patent attorneys just because they are such experts in their given fields. Whether that be physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, or something else, it is fascinating to hear them break complex technical processes into simple explanations that a non-expert like me can understand.

I have also been enjoying life in Munich outside of work. For example, I am able ride my bike to the office every day, despite living on the opposite side of town from my firm. Aside from my daily commute, I can often walk to get where I need to go, whether that be a friend’s apartment, a nearby plaza, or a neighborhood grocery store. Being able to move around the city this way has been extremely enjoyable and improves my daily satisfaction in a way that is hard to overstate.

One of the most important revelations I’ve had concerning life in Munich is that this city is a real option for me to live in someday. I think I was always aware of the possibility of working internationally as an attorney, but I never considered it as a concrete option in the way I do now. In the past two months I have worked with attorneys in our office who are from all over the world, including Romania, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, China, France, and Ukraine. Seeing people from around the world work together in this office has moved the prospect of working abroad to the front of my mind.

This experience has been rich and rewarding each step of the way. When I arrived in Munich two months ago, I was feeling burned out with law school. Now, I feel like I have the world ahead of me. The world feels bigger; the potential life and career paths ahead feel more numerous. Above all, my time here in Munich has reinvigorated the excitement of finding a career path and a place to live in life. I wholeheartedly recommend the experience to any prospective student looking for a chance to see what life as an attorney looks like in another part of the world.