Introductory words which set the tone for the evening
Be sponges and suns, to fill up on information and to shine with your refreshing questions to professionals
Marie Amélie Delvaux, lecturer at the Faculty of Law
To be a lawyer is to use legislation in the daily life of citizens
Lawyers in the market and non-market sectors (public or private), the profiles of this panel were varied. Audrey Ligot, from the non-profit organisation Droits quotidiens-Legal info, opened the session by sharing her passion: making the law accessible to social workers and citizens. In concrete terms, her activities range from consultations aimed at providing answers to the questions of social workers, to their training, to the writing of articles and popularisation sheets, to project management. All this on a wide range of subjects.
Julie Latour is a lawyer in the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) department of the Belgian Red Cross. Her mission is twofold: to disseminate IHL to those who are supposed to apply it in their profession (military, NGOs, lawyers, journalists and even law students) and to conduct humanitarian diplomacy aimed at ensuring compliance with the Geneva Conventions. As an auxiliary to the Belgian public authorities, its service is responsible for advising them on this specific area of law.
Géraldine Battel and Ingrid Verhoeven are active in the public sector. More specifically, as Planu coordinators within the City of Namur and the Namur police. Their mission: to draw up emergency plans and advise the authorities on crisis management. A function that requires them to take an interest in subjects as varied as nuclear energy, terrorism, epidemics and bad weather.
To illustrate the commercial sector, Nicolas Roberti, a lawyer with the CBC bank, explained his activities. These consist of analysing legislation, popularising it, training various actors, giving conferences and advising the company on a product. It also manages complaints and disputes. And this is true throughout the life of many products!
As for Laura Lodi, she presented the work of the lawyers at the Union of the Middle Classes. Some of them deal with concrete legal problems faced by entrepreneurs and employers. Others, like her, are more in charge of analysing new legislation to measure its impact and implement it.
Through these different testimonies, the students were able to perceive that lawyers, each in their own way and in their own sector, have one thing in common: using legislation and putting it back into the daily lives of citizens. All this with an openness to a variety of subjects and, in some cases, an important human dimension.
A career in the judiciary to deliver justice to citizens
The panel from the judicial world included representatives from the judiciary as well as three female lawyers, one of whom was also a mediator. Benoît Cuvelier, auditor at the Council of State, explained that this jurisdiction brings together people who are passionate about administrative law. As an auditor, he gives opinions on draft legislation and deals with contentious cases. His motivation: knowing that citizens are waiting for justice to be done. He also confides that he never has the impression that he is working or bored because the legislation and subjects are so diverse and evolving.
Najat Arbib is a judge at the court of first instance in Liege. With humour and sincerity, she retraced her captivating professional career. She does not hide the fact that she felt powerless as a youth judge. As an investigating judge, she explains how demanding this function is. Today, as a correctional judge, she deals with cases of human trafficking and rape. During her testimony, she insists on the importance of values and responsibility of judges who have destinies in their hands. "I have learned to be humble. A habitual judge is a dead judge for justice. Every day, I am in reflection". If she chose the judiciary, it was for the intellectual independence, the variety of subjects, the stability, but also the social consideration. "As my son says, it does the trick," she laughs.
For Delphine Moreau, deputy public prosecutor in Namur, the public prosecutor's office offers the advantage of teamwork. She can seek the advice of her colleagues even if she is responsible for her own case. In concrete terms, the deputy conducts criminal investigations based on facts committed or suspected in collaboration with the police or specialised administrations. His or her role is then to qualify the facts in order to decide what to do with the case: propose a settlement, take the case to court, etc. "I've been working in the economic and financial section for six years now and I'm not bored because we're still innovating!
Diane Wattiez is a lawyer at the Namur bar. Her days are varied and rhythmic: morning hearings, consultations, management of correspondence, substantive work, negotiations, expert meetings, office administration, etc. Our role is to advise and guide our clients. In some cases, we also provide support.
Marie Amélie Delvaux, also a lawyer at the Namur bar, added the challenge and the daily intellectual interest represented by the fact that the lawyer learns every day, on the one hand because standards evolve, as does case law, and on the other hand because he accompanies his client in sometimes technical and very diversified matters (medical field, gas explosion...) so that he has to 'get out of the law'.
Conclusions of the evening
Bee Marique, mediator, concluded the session with her testimony on mediation which requires a more psychological approach to identify the best way to position oneself, to address people, to tackle problems in order to try to resolve conflicts.
The informal exchanges between students and professionals continued over a drink at the Cercle Droit, a partner of this evening. Zoé, Joséphine, Mahé, Guillaume, Louis... the students and panellists we met all shared the same opinion: the stories were concrete and enlightening. As for the large audience, they were captivated and relevant!
At the end of the evening, we had only one regret: not having had the time to hear the testimonies of bailiffs Louis Valéry Baptiste and Noélie Croufer, notaries Hélène Diricq and Géraldine Van Bilsen, or those of Antoine Misonne, diplomat at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the European Union, and Louis Dehaybe, parliamentary attaché. The Faculty of Law of Namur will be back next year to hear more about the many opportunities offered by law studies!