In January, I started my four-month long internship at international Law & tax firm Loyens & Loeff in Amsterdam and Rotterdam as a marketing and events coordinator, and I am currently halfway through the internship. This was a great opportunity for me to combine my current study (Communication Science) with my attempt to do law back in 2020, and crawl back into the corporate world. I am mainly responsible for planning and coordinating events but have marketing, and administrative tasks as well. Events sound a bit strange for a law firm but the events we’re talking about are mainly webinars, seminars, and networking events for lawyers or tax advisors who need to acquire a certain amount of education points each year.
My day starts around 9:00 with a cappuccino with almond milk at the barista on the first floor. Before I started my internship, everybody tried to prepare me for the amazing coffee they served here, and they were right. After getting my coffee, I head upstairs to the sixth floor where you can find the Business Development, Marketing and Communications department.
I always start with checking out my mailbox to answer questions about the events I am planning or help my colleagues with making invitations, headers, or LinkedIn posts. This is normally what I do until 12:30 which is time to have a break!
Loyens & Loeff offers a buffet with a wide variety of things to get like sandwiches, salads, soups and more. Something quite funny is that Loyens & Loeff helped me eat healthier and more consistently throughout the day which caused me to lose weight which is a nice bonus.
Once a week, we have a meeting with the entire events team which consists of 6 people to discuss how the events are going, or any updates we all must know. I was mainly shadowing my colleagues in the first month because when planning a corporate event, you must keep every little detail in mind which was difficult to remember at first. Another obstacle I encountered was the fact that I did not understand the world I just entered. If you do not understand the contents of the event you have to plan, talking about it in meetings gets more difficult as well. Topics covered were indirect and direct tax, energy & infrastructure, automotive, and many other topics that communication science does not cover. Getting used to this took me some time and is still a work in progress.
A big part of my day consists of meetings, meetings, and more meetings. These can be with colleagues but also clients. The planning of an event starts with a request from a colleague from a certain practice group, or other company wanting to collaborate. After the request it is a matter of lots of meetings discussing the date, invitation contents, who to invite, what kind of event (online, webinar, or live), and what the event is going to look like.
The thing I learned most from my time here at Loyens & Loeff is to adapt in a corporate atmosphere, communicate with my colleagues and clients, and the marketing tactics used for the branding of a law firm.
All in all, I really enjoy my time here at Loyens & Loeff. My colleagues gave me a warm welcome and adapting to the work culture was difficult at first, but feels really good now.
This is what the office in Amsterdam looks like:
